ATHENS — A lockdown is not part of the government's basic planning for dealing with Covid-19 or among the scenarios being considered, Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias said in an interview with the "Athens Voice" released on Thursday. "It exists only as an extreme scenario, in the case that, for example, there was suddenly an uncontrollable increase, with thousands of cases in a few days."

Referring to the large number of daily cases in Attica, he pointed out that it "sounds the alarm to activate the appropriate additional measures, but not to go from one extreme to the other. We cannot simply turn what I'd describe as last-ditch measures on and off, starting and stopping the daily lives of millions of people every so often. Not because the economy is more important than the lives of people but because, as we have seen in many countries, it affects social cohesion, increases non-compliance with the recommendations of experts and, most importantly, it is too much to bear psychologically for people who have already been tested for months. It takes a lot of attention, a lot of restraint, I would say that it takes a kind of 'wisdom' as to how a state uses the weapons of prohibitions and restrictions on its citizens, even if it does so for reasons of public health."