ATHENS — The reopening of the schools, the national vaccination programme and the Greek-Turkish issues were the focus of State Minister George Gerapetritis' interview with "Parapolitika 90.1" radio station on Monday.

Starting from the current issue of the reopening of schools, the Minister of State defended the necessity of this decision, citing psychological reasons on the one hand, and the inequalities existing in distance education on the other hand. Moreover, it is "very critical" for children to return to schools, he stressed expressing the hope that high schools and lyceums will also be opened, depending on the epidemiological data.

As for the vaccination, he reassured that Greece has secured a number of vaccines that exceed the needs. Responding to the complaints about delays in the national vaccination programme, Gerapetritis said that 0.5 pct of the population has already been vaccinated, a percentage that is twice the European average. He also underlined that the government intends to increase the number of people being vaccinated every day reaching 30,000 per day.

On the Greek-Turkish issues, he clarified that we are not close to negotiations. The only issue for the Greek side, he underlined, is the delimitation of the EEZ.