ATHENS – Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis attended an event at Elefsina airport base on Wednesday honoring the personnel in the country’s emergency ambulance service EKAV who lost their lives in the line of duty.

January 14 was established by the Greek Health ministry in 2019 and is observed annually.

Commemorating the day “with a slight delay due to the pandemic,” Mitsotakis said, the date “also honors all those who continue to save the lives of our fellow human beings, like doctors, nurses and other frontline health workers.”

The most fitting and practical gesture of honor for all these workers, the premier said, would be to begin updating EKAV’s services, especially as it is has been upgraded from the old services center and is now being linked directly to hospital emergency services. EKAV handles a wide range of injuries ranging from accidents to natural disasters, heart attacks and strokes, he said.

Finally, the premier asserted that the tax exemption provided for Air Force flight bonuses will also apply to EKAV airlift staff using the service’s helicopter and the airplane donated by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, and added that more staff will be hired soon.

The event at EKAV’s airlift base was also addressed by Alternate Health Minister Mina Gaga and the ambulance service’s head Nikos Papaefstathiou. The prime minister also presented awards to members of the rescue squad accompanying missions of children airlifted to Athens hospitals after a traffic accident on Andros island in July 2021.