Greece: We will celebrate Easter with cautiousness and personal protective measures
For the third year we will celebrate Easter with cautiousness and personal protective measures, but closer to normalcy than the previous two years, Alternate Health Minister Mina Gaga said in an interview with the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA) released on Thursday. “SARS-CoV-2 is resilient and makes sure with its variants to remind us that it is still here,” she added.
“The current protective measures will continue to apply during Easter. We will celebrate Easter with cautiousness and the use of masks indoors. We will meet our loved ones, we will celebrate while being really careful with the elderly and the most vulnerable. If we present any suspicious symptom, we will self-isolate, protecting ourselves and others,” Gaga underlined.
The steps for returning to normalcy are gradual and careful, and scientists are closely monitoring the epidemiological situation, she said. “After two years of health, social and economic pressure, we all need to relax. But we must continue to be careful, for ourselves and our loved ones, especially if they belong to a vulnerable group. Pandemic control is based from the outset on individual responsibility – alongside collective and political. Without the contribution of each one of us, pandemic management cannot be achieved. In our country, most of the population showed a high sense of social awareness and individual responsibility from the beginning, adhering to the measures and getting vaccinated. That is why we must thank all these citizens for their efforts,” the alternate minister noted.
She added that the situation is being closely monitored and the decisions follow the scientific recommendations. Regarding the appearance of a new mutation of SARS-CoV-2, Gaga said that “the appearance of a new variant can not be predicted, neither in terms of time of occurrence nor, of course, in terms of transmissibility and morbidity. We are monitoring the epidemiological development both in our country and in Europe and the rest of the world, we are listening to the suggestions of the scientific committees and we are proceeding accordingly.”
Regarding the preparation of the national health system for dealing with a possible pandemic wave in the autumn, Gaga stressed: “The national health system has been coping with multiple pandemic waves over the past two years. The experience is now greater, the system has been strengthened and will be further strengthened.”
Source: amna.gr
