ATHENS — Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke about the need to coordinate the distribution of a vaccine against Covid-19 and the technical specifications required so that population can be vaccinated as soon as possible, during his participation on Tuesday in the online COVID Management Group for heads of state and government, composed of the countries that had addressed the first wave of the pandemic successfully.

Mitsotakis referred to recent developments and underlined the need for consistency so that the anticipation of a vaccine will not lead the citizens to relax their guard in terms of Covid-19 protection measures.

According to government sources, he also spoke about developments in Greece and "the epidemiological course, as well as the exponential growth of infections in Greece and the pressure on the health system that led to a lockdown for three weeks."

The prime minister noted that the next 10 days will be crucial and the aim is for the measures to yield results.

During the teleconference, the leaders taking part exchanged views on the situation prevailing in their countries and discussed the increase in cases observed, especially in Europe, "which has led many countries to impose either strict restrictive measures or a lockdown that leaves a part of economic activity and schools open".

Among those participating were Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg, the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Andrej Babis, the Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.