Given that “there is no question of reinstating horizontal restrictive measures”, the Minister of State Akis Skertsos addressed today, through the First Program of the NRA, to our fellow citizens who have not been vaccinated, to overcome their phobias and cross the “line ». This time, however, he also addressed the vaccinated people who have not taken the third dose, asking them to do so. In particular, those over 60 years of age who have closed the semester from the second dose, “should hurry to take their third dose to protect their health more effectively,” he stressed.
“Overall, Greece has done better than the European average: this can be seen in the case indicators, in the death rates, in the economic indicators, that Greece currently has the third highest growth in the European economy, it has the first place in “We have reduced unemployment by four points”, the Minister of State noted in his introductory interview, explaining at the same time that public health, save as many lives as possible from a deadly pandemic, and at the same time prevent the economy from collapsing. “Not only has our economy not collapsed, on the contrary it is growing even more dynamically than where we left it when the pandemic occurred.”
Moreover, with the findings on the one hand that “85-90% of the intubated patients are citizens who have not been vaccinated”, on the other hand that “3/4 of the population has been vaccinated”, according to A. Scherzo: “There is no question of reinstating horizontal restrictive measures, which are seriously hurting the economy, hurting and now having the opposite effect – we have seen this in the last lockdown.”
“Our actions must be aimed at convincing people who are still reluctant to get the vaccine. “I fully understand a person who is reluctant to have an operation on his body, the vaccine is an intervention on our body,” he said. However, he countered, “On the contrary, the side effects of the disease are severe, leading vulnerable people to death, so the vaccine is the safest solution.”
He even referred to Western European countries, such as Spain, Portugal, France, which “especially in vulnerable ages over 60 years have achieved very high vaccination rates, over 90%, close to 98%.” “When in our country in this age group” we are at 80% (…) this difference of 15-20 points is crucial to have a milder development of the pandemic in these difficult winter months “, he further argued.
He also insisted that “we do not apply divisive measures, in no case do we want a social automation to prevail between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated”, but on the other hand “we must protect both social cohesion and the functioning of the economy, the country can not stand no other lockdowns, no other bonus policies that have no meaning to be implemented at this stage, since we have a serious growth of the economy and employment “.
With regard to the new appointments, “there was a combination of fear – because the cases increased – and at the same time new measures that restrict the access of unvaccinated citizens indoors. This combination of measures has led to an almost quadrupling of the daily appointments of both the first installment and the third installment “. It is, after all, “very important, people who have been hesitant so far, to cross the line and get the vaccine.”
Another point that the Minister of State emphasized was the issue of the booster dose: “Antibodies to those who have been vaccinated, after six months fall. This works especially hard for those over 60, and there people who have closed the semester should also rush to take their third dose to protect their health more effectively. “They are not vaccinated, they are vaccinated but with declining antibodies.” After all, “there are about 450,000 citizens over the age of 60 who have taken the third installment, they need to increase, to reach 1 – 1.2 million. The information campaign needs to be intensified, we will do it even more emphatically, we will we continue with special spots that will specifically target the vaccinated people, to do the third dose “.
At this point, he referred to the sermon, last week, of President Macron, who announced that citizens over the age of 60 will be able to enter indoors, provided that they are vaccinated with the third dose. “This is not applied in Greece yet, we could look into it,” he said.
Responding also to the opposition’s objections to the shortcomings in the field of health, he countered that “(the opposition) should have acted much more responsibly while it was a government for the public health system, there were big gaps. We had 557 Intensive Care Units and now we have 1,300 ICUs, Greece is at the European average at the moment “. As for the human resources, “we have proceeded with the recruitment of over 12,000 permanent and temporary staff”, while beyond that “we try to assist with the possibilities that the private sector has to meet the local needs”.
Citizens should enter the platform for the heating allowance
In another topical issue, prices on energy bills, after he said that “Greece has been moving fast, since September, even before the rest of the European Union, and we gave a very brave package, which is over 600 million ., support for energy and heating bills “, A. Skertsos reminded that today the platform opens for the beneficiaries of heating allowance. Finally, he added, “the platform and the heating allowance cover almost the entire population, more than 80% of the citizens are beneficiaries”.
Recognizing that “this year due to international fluctuations there will indeed be some price increases in energy prices”, he called on citizens to take an interest and enter the platform of the Ministry of Finance (…) and take advantage of the significant support provided by the state to there should be a relief in terms of energy bills “. The government’s position is that “there will be no real burden on the account of an average household, we monitor the fluctuations, it is an international phenomenon, temporary, we believe, which will be exhausted at the beginning of next year and in any case we will make any possible and necessary intervention to support households “, he concluded in conclusion.
Pole of development and protection of the environment, northern Evia
Closing on the issue of rehabilitation measures in the fire-affected areas, “we have moved at very fast speeds, unprecedented for the data of the Greek public administration. A large budget of close to € 200 million has been allocated for rehabilitation projects. The necessary studies have been completed, both for the anti-corrosion and for the anti-flood works, several of which have been started “.
At the same time, he continued, “there have been important policies of strengthening and support for professionals so that they can stay in their place and create there. We are taking care of today, in terms of restoration actions, but also the next day “, he underlined, noting at the same time that” last week, the committee under Mr. Beno presented 14 studies related to reconstruction, at a strategic level now, of northern Evia, in order to become in the coming years a pole of growth, a pole of creating new jobs, innovation, but also respect and protection of the environment. We are talking about studies that have to do with the new forest, with the new tourist product, infrastructure studies, studies for the primary sector. For the first time, what is called integrated spatial investment will be implemented in our country with very significant amounts that will be allocated by both the NSRF and the Recovery Fund to support the needs of the local society and economy “, he concluded.
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