ATHENS — "We will be able to return to normal conditions only when we are absolutely sure that the pressure on the national health system has been significantly reduced," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday regarding the duration of the lockdown, during a teleconference with President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou.

Meanwhile, The government spokesperson once again appealed to the public to abide by the Covid-19 curbs in order to reduce the pressure on the health system and help the doctors and nurses to save lives.

"Let us abide by the measures that there is no delay in reopening the economy and social activity. Let us observe the measures, staying at home to stay safe," he said.

Petsas noted that the pressure on the national health system will continue in the coming days as the results of the previous weeks were now becoming apparent. He noted that the government was continuing to add ICUs to the system and remained ready to requisition beds in private clinics if necessary, while hiring the additional staff and arranging rapid training for available staff to assist in ICUs.

"Obviously, in conditions of war such as those we are facing, the country is operating as a single health region," he said.

"We all understand that there is a fatigue in society but now, after the daily announcements about effective vaccines, we see some light," Petsas said, noting that the global crisis was drawing to a close.

"Until then, let us continue the effort…let us avoid dangerous relaxation," he added, noting that Greece has already secured significant quantities of the vaccines and the health ministry has a plan for vaccinating the population. He said there will be 1018 vaccination centres throughout Greece that will be able to vaccinate 2,117,440 people a month.

In the field of economy, he said that the government's is proving in action that it cares and can support the most vulnerable groups and in this context "the government today announced a new package of measures" in continuation of the prime minister's recent announcements in parliament.

At this point, Petsas underlined that "the measures taken for the support of the economy in a situation of unprecedented health crisis are considered to be in the right direction by our European partners. Specifically, the 8th Enhanced Surveillance report was concluded on Wednesday. The report confirms that the government, despite the crisis, is continuing the reforms and underlined the contribution of the cohesive package of support measures for the households, totalling 24 billion euros for 2020, for the effective addressing of the economic repercussions of the pandemic and specifically the support of the people of labour, the support of liquidity in real economy and the invigoration of social cohesion".