ATHENS — "If the vaccinated reach 80 percent [of the population], the pandemic will be over," Development and Investments Minister Adonis Georgiadis said on Tuesday in an interview with Skai TV, adding that Greece has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.

Asked whether a company could invoke non-vaccination as a reason for dismissal, the minister agreed that it could be grounds for dismissal if the employee works in a critical post for the company, but stressed that this was an issue that is for the courts to decide and that "it does not concern the government at all, nor will the government legislate for such a thing."

The minister added that a new quarantine in the event of a fourth wave of the pandemic would be catastrophic for the economy and it must be avoided through vaccinations.

He expressed confidence that in the coming weeks Greece will be able to have a much greater degree of freedom based on the course of the pandemic, adding and that the prime minister has ordered that the Bioethics Committee has been consulted about an easing of protective restrictions for the fully vaccinated.

Georgiadis said that he is bothered by the word "privileges" but it is logical to reduce protection measures for someone who has been vaccinated and is therefore less at risk.