ATHENS — The government had two choices after the scientifically inexplicable exponential growth in coronavirus cases observed in the past week, State Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis said in an interview with Thema radio on Friday.

Gerapetritis underlined his conviction that "the total lockdown measure will work," noting that "our intention is, as of December 1, to gradually exit the lockdown."

Futher explaining the government's choice, he said that "having this scientifically inexplicable exponential growth we had two choices. The first was to wait and see if the measures we have imposed in the last period would bring results. It is possible these measures would bring results but it would be a high-risk option, which would be based on an uncertainty. We chose the second option, which was to apply a full lockdown for precautionary reasons, and ensure that we would not have an exponential rise that would test the limits of the national health system".

He said that the full lockdown will work, noting that it has worked whenever it was applied, including in Greece during the first phase of the pandemic, but clarified that "normality as we knew it will not exist in December. The precautionary measures until a critical mass of the population is vaccinated, will have to be in place," citing the use of face masks and restricting crowding as examples.

Finally, asked about the vaccine, he said that the most probable scenario is that the first doses of the vaccine will arrive in January, if the final tests go well.