ATHENS — The unprecedented health crisis created by the coronavirus pandemic "is testing our national resilience", Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias said in an interview published Sunday by Real News newspaper.

"During this second wave, with the greatest coronavirus spread in the population, with the repercussions of the pandemic on all of us, individually and collectively, and the tremendous pressure the National Health System is under, our national endurance is being tested," he said.

"We are in a second lockdown, we are again sacrificing things, we are trying, we live with restrictions, feel insecure, exhaustion and anxiety, while at the same time, at the front lines of the great battle, hundreds of our own are hospitalized and thousands of doctors, nursing and health staff are fighting round the clock by their side," he added.

No patient is left without the necessary care, despite the second way, he asserted. "The picture Europe provides is shocking, and in this picture, Greece is remarkably resilient after ten years of tough austerity and cuts," he said, while pleading with the public to observe health measures because "every human life is different and unique."