ATHENS – It’s already nearly gotten as health measures were lifted, tourists are pouring in and anti-vaxxers are being allowed to mix with everyone else, but Greece passed a grim milestone, hitting 30,012 COVID deaths.

That came on June 11 with the pandemic still lingering but people massing everywhere, without masks or social distancing or being required to show vaccination certificates as the New Democracy government changes money and an economic comeback.

The  The National Organization for Public Health (EODY) announced another 4,539 cases and 15 deaths that pushed the total over the 30,000 mark, with 109 people on ventilators in public hospital Intensive Care Units (ICUs) said Kathimerini.

That brought the total number of cases in Greece since the start of the pandemic rose to 3,496,807, with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis long ago backing away from saying he would consider mandatory shots for all.

Despite that, health care workers who aren’t vaccinated continue to be suspended without pay and face being fired although that could change depending on the epidemiological data under constant review.