ATHENS – It's over yet – a busload of people is dying every day and cases only slowly retreating – but most Greeks believe the COVID-19 pandemic is retreating enough so that a normal life will return by 2022.

A survey by the DiaNEOsis think-tank found that 68.4 percent of Greeks believe that the worst is over, a lenient lockdown essentially lifted, many people shunning masks and safe social distances and already acting like it's over.

In September, 2020, with the pandemic raging and fear spreading just as fast, most Greeks thought it was like a plague overwhelming the country and the world, some 75 percent then fearing it wouldn't end for a long time.

Now, 57.2 percent in the study said the New Democracy government has adpted to dealing with the pandemic, a vaccination campaign driving optimism as it's working to hold down cases, deaths and critically-ill patients.

Already, 38.9 percent said they have received at least one dose of two required of most vaccines apart from the single-shot Johnson & Johnson from the Jnited States, and 66.2 percent said the felt better emotionally right away.

The number of anti-vaxxers, those who don't want to be inoculated for one reason or another, has fallen from 14.3 percent in December, 2020 to only 6.2 percent and 4.8 percent said they probably wouldn't take it, down from 13.1 percent.

A huge majority, 87 percent, including those already vaccinated, reported that they would be positive towards receiving a vaccination jab, across all ages, education brackets, income groups, professions, and all regions of Greece, said Kathimerini.