ATHENS — The Covid-19 vaccine is not a panacea, and the government should support the National Health System (NHS) at the same time, SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance party said on Wednesday.

The main opposition party said "the news that Greece will procure only 300,000 vaccines in January – that is, only 150,000 citizens will be vaccinated – confirms what Syriza-Progressive Alliance has been proclaiming from the start: that the vaccine, which the government has elevated to a panacea to justify its inertia over strengthening the NHS, is a significant tool, but it alone is inadequate in fighting the pandemic."

By the time a greater percentage of the population is inoculated, many more will be left exposed to a pandemic that is out of control, the party maintained.

Syriza also criticized the government for voting in Parliament a budget that has reduced health expenditures in 2021 by 580 million euros, in the midst of a pandemic.

The party then proposed three immediate actions: pushing for prescriptions and reimbursement of coronavirus tests so that they are carried out massively and for free in order to provide a timely and valid idea of the dispersal inthe community; to support the NHS with incentives and a plan to hire doctors for permanent positions, a plan not found in any of the government's reports, it said; and to requisition private clinics when necessary, so that NHS manages them as a central administration.

"The effort to deal with the pandemic must continue; any other choice is irresponsible and dangerous," the main opposition party concluded.