Pechas: «Our first priority is the opening of schools»

The government spokesman began his interview with a reference to the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine on ERT's morning show «From Six», Stelios Petsas. He also reiterated that the government's first priority is to open schools at all levels.

For schools

He said the issue was raised yesterday by the Minister of Education, Niki Kerameos to the committee of experts and the discussion will continue in the coming days based on epidemiological data so that «we will soon be able to say whether schools will open at 8 o'clock or whether there will be some differentiation between levels of education». He reiterated that the government's intention is to open all grades and we will stick to this until the final recommendation of the experts is available.

A new meeting to be held on Monday, January 4, will be referred to a new meeting to decide on the opening of schools, as yesterday's teleconference of Committee of Infectious Diseases with the Minister of Education Niki Kerameos no consensus was reached.

As he stressed, for the decisions we are waiting for the final recommendation of the experts - which is either unanimous or by majority - which we are following.

For the vaccination

In response to a question about the procedure that has been followed for both the number of vaccines coming to our country and the prioritization, he pointed out that in order to dispel impressions we must say that «first of all, it is a very great success of science which we must all embrace. The discovery of the vaccine is something that can put our lives back in our hands.».

Then as to what exactly the government did, he stressed that «it prepared the health structures, to create 1,018 vaccination centers so that when we have the vaccines can be vaccinated at the rate we have estimated over 2 million of our fellow citizens. This is the capacity of our health apparatus,» Petsas said. He added that the vaccines are not manufactured by the Greek government but by specific companies that receive approval from European bodies or the relevant competent bodies in the US, UK or elsewhere.

He also explained that at the moment we are only getting vaccines from one company, Pfizer, from which we are actually getting fewer vaccines than the pre-acquisition contracts provided for. ’Those doses will continue to be supplemented by doses from other companies« and what matters, he said, is we have properly prepared the mechanism, that vaccines arrive and that we can vaccinate more people with the prioritisation that has been decided and has been known for a long time.

«The forecast is 20 January to open the procedure for the general population», answered a question, with reference to what Mr. Themistocleous, the Minister of Health, responsible for vaccination in its operational part, has said. «From about January 10, the process will be open on emvolio.gov.gr, so that the citizen can go in with his AMKA and can see what the vaccination process is.».

In response to a question about the criticism from the opposition on the vaccinations of officials, he explained that there are two reasons for the vaccinations of government officials. «The first one is purely symbolic: to give the message to citizens that we are talking about safe and effective vaccines and to urge people to get vaccinated.».

He added that «the second part has to do with the continuity of the state. There are areas of the government, the armed forces, the security forces that must continue to function. A number of 126 people have been selected there by the end of January to be vaccinated along with the other approximately 215,000 of our fellow citizens who will have been vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine by the end of January.».

He stressed that what is important is that the vaccination has started and is progressing well. As of yesterday, according to data, 1,128 of our fellow citizens had been vaccinated and we must emphasize «the operation of the mechanism without problems.» It is absolutely essential that storage, distribution, prioritisation and, ultimately, certification work properly. These must be tested in the first few weeks. That's where we need to focus: on the big picture,» he said. He also stressed that the example is of great importance because a large part of the population, about 70%, needs to be vaccinated to build the immunity wall.

For the operation of the market

«There is likely to be an evolution in the retail sector», the government spokesman said in response to a question. «We will see in the coming days but what is important is that some activities such as catering it is very difficult to be in the first wave of opening up the economy and social activity.».

He stressed that we will go with gradual steps but what we have to be careful about is compliance with the measures currently in force on New Year's and Epiphany days. «It is absolutely crucial that we stick to the measures also in these days in order to have a good picture and to be able to slowly liberalise sectors of economic and social activity from 8 January onwards.».

Petsas also reiterated that support measures will continue to be provided and that it is understood that nothing can make up for the turnover lost by market professionals.