ATHENS – So many people aren’t doing what’s simple and necessary to protect themselves from COVID-19 it has spread during a third lockdown, two Greek scientists offering a way to stay safe: wear masks, stay a safe social distance and wash your hands.

Speaking to Kathimerini, scientists said that the Coronavirus and its even-more dangerous variants can be beaten just by following medical advice often ignored.

Epidemiologists Gikas Magiorkinis and Dimitris Paraskevis told the paper that, “There is no strain that can be transmitted when protection measures are adequate and social distancing is properly implemented.”

“The British strain seems to have a higher frequency than any other at the moment in Greece,” said Magiorkinis, while Paraskevis noted that based on the available data, the strains of both these groups have increased infectivity.

“How contagious it is depends on many factors, such as whether the measures are followed or the average number of contacts of each person has,” Paraskevis added.

The UK variant appeared when that country, hard hit by the pandemic, was lax with safety measures but other strains have appeared in the world, including South Africa and Brazil, contributing to the disease’s spread.

So-called “Lockdown Fatigue” is another factor in Greece being unable to bring the pandemic under control, people required to stay in their homes although there are so many allowed reasons to be out that they can still flock together.

Greece is also picking up a slow-rolling vaccination campaign that has seen only little more than one million people in a country of 10.7 million getting at least one of two required shots to be effective for them and controlling the lingering pandemic.