ATHENS – Already overwhelmed by a second wave of COVID-19, Greece could be thunderstruck with a third in 2021, said the head of Intensive Care Units (ICU's) at a major hospital in Thessaloniki, that was suddenly swamped by the resurgence that began in October.

“The situation is desperate, the ICUs are full,” Nikos Kapravelos at the Papanikolaou hospital, told SKAI TV as Development and Investments Minister Adonis Georgiadis was visiting there.

“When Mr. Georgiadis opens up the economy, because you can't do anything else, we won't stop breathing, I'm afraid that the next wave (of the pandemic) will come in January or February,” he said.

“All ages are now stricken (by the virus),” Kapravelos added, the average of those infected falling fast after young people especially ignored health protocols and kept partying and going to nightclubs that the government allowed to stay open.

Prime Minister and New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis admitted he was too slow in imposing the second lockdown – finally doing so after Thessaloniki was overtaken by the virus.

He had been trying to balance saving lives against preventing a crash of the economy that was already teetering after a first lockdown that began in March and lasted 10 weeks closed many businesses and left others on the edge.