ATHENS — "The government is doing what it can to support professionals in the restaurant sector," Minister of Development and Investment Adonis Georgiadis said on Tuesday in an interview with ANT1 TV, adding that additional funding tools will be announced for entrepreneurs in areas that have been "red zones" for long periods, such as west Attica.

Georgiadis stressed that the government is doing everything it can to support the professionals of the sector, while pointing out that the government is "managing a global disaster."

He stated that an NSRF programme is being prepared specifically for the hospitality sector and noted that the money of the Returnable Advance 5 was less than expected and for this reason he was working with Finance Minister Christos Staikouras on developing a special algorithm in the Returnable Advance 6 for this sector.

Asked about the practice of alternately opening and closing stores, he stressed that it was not possible to handle the situation any other way and pointed out that the similar policies were adopted by all countries when dealing with a fluid situation such as the pandemic.

Georgiadis also stressed that no one can rule out a hard lockdown in the future as the epidemiological data are constantly changing.