ATHENS — The government's entire planning has one goal: on one hand that the country remain protected from the novel coronavirus until the mass vaccination process is completed and, on the other hand, to have an economic and social road map for the transition to normality and growth," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated at the virtual cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Referring to a draft bill on issues relating to universities, prepared by Education Minister Niki Kerameus, he said: "The draft law that Education Minister Niki Kerameus will talk to us about upgrades studies, on the one hand, and security within universities, on the other hand. Establishing a minimum pass mark for university entrance was one of New Democracy's pre-election promises and guarantees a basic level of knowledge in order to qualify for tertiary education."

The major wager of the coming months will be the vaccination effort, Mitsotakis said.

"I would say that the issue of the mass vaccination is the major national wager of the coming months. Obviously, the protection measures against the coronavirus will continue to apply during this period," he said, noting that these are entirely interdependent since, the more faithfully the protection measures were followed, the easier it will be to lift restrictions and the greater the number of citizens that are vaccinated, the closer the end of the ordeal will come.

"As you are aware, the EU authorities have just approved the Pfizer vaccine. According to the information we have, the first doses of the vaccine will arrive in Greece on December 26. Vaccinations will begin in Athens and Thessaloniki on the very next day and gradually expand to the 1,018 vaccination centres which have already been set up throughout the country," he said.