ATHENS – The island of Lemnos was the second stop made by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during the Epiphany holiday on Thursday, after he attended the service and a ceremony for the blessing of the waters on nearby Agios Efstratios.

Visiting the island’s hospital, the prime minister repeated that the real meaning of the holiday was “truth that saves” and stressed that the message in support of vaccination against Covid-19 must be constant and unrelenting.

“The vaccination message must be constant because I was looking at the latest figures for those intubated once again and all the people intubated in the country, every one, has Delta. Fortunately, we have not yet had an intubation due to Omicron, not one. Also, of those intubated at this time, 86 pct are unvaccinated. This is a real shame. Every single day, still, there are some of our fellow citizens that lose their life because they did not choose the self-evident and safer course,” Mitsotakis said.

The prime minister paid a visit to Lemnos General Hospital, which also serves as a vaccination centre, and spoke with the management and staff, stressing the importance of vaccination ahead of the opening of schools on January 10.

“Now that schools will open, vaccination takes on special importance, even though the most important thing for schools at this time is to observe the measures, especially the wearing of masks, and to carry out the frequent tests as we have planned,” he said.

He highlighted the importance of booster shots in this context, saying that Greece had started early and thus had sufficient time to build up a wall of immunity, while reporting that general vaccination coverage of the adult population in Greece was now at 82 pct.

While on the island, the prime minister also visited a Hellenic Air Force unit stationed on Limnos, as well as meeting the island’s mayor, young people permanently resident on the island and two wineries, one run by the local farmers’ association and one run as a family business.