ATHENS — Main opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance spokesperson Nassos Iliopoulos on Tuesday said the government had "completely failed" in its management of the second wave of the pandemic, during an interview on the television channel Antenna.

He said that Greece has been in lockdown for a month and it was clear that the measures were not working, for which "the government is solely responsible".

According to SYRIZA's spokesperson, essential protection measures against the pandemic were not being implemented in work places, while the labour minister had failed to reply to SYRIZA's questions on the number of workplace inspections taking place to ensure compliance.

He also stressed that the government must immediately begin prescribing tests so that there was adequate tracking of the virus' spread in the community, rather than allowing tests to drop to just 6,000 a day.

On the economy, Iliopoulos said that "protection of life also means economic support for people," and he spoke of "skyrocketing recession in the third quarter of 2020," with the Greek economy shrinking by 11.7 pct when the European average was 4.3 pct in the same period.