ATHENS – Government spokesperson Yiannis Economou lashed out at SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance Alexis Tsipras during a press briefing on Thursday, on the occasion of the main opposition’s objections to a scientific study about ICUs.

“Scientific studies should not be diminished to serve party interests, which is what Mr. Tsipras is doing … We need unity and commitment in dealing with the pandemic, and we will not deviate from this,” the government spokesperson said adding that the prime minister was not aware of the study.

On the front of the pandemic, Economou described as emergency the measure of mandatory demonstration of a negative PCR 72 hours for all Greek and non-Greek travellers, who return to the country and have stayed abroad for more than 48 hours. He added that the measure will be in effect for the holiday season and was taken in order to delay the spread of the Omicron variant as well as to save time to increase vaccination coverage.

Economou announced that since the day of the announcement of the measure of mandatory vaccination for citizens over 60 years, about 170,000 appointments have been made for the first dose.

Regarding the adoption of the American-Greek Defence and Interparliamentary Partnership, Economou noted that it recognizes the strategic role of Greece in the Eastern Mediterranean and Southern Europe, in favour of stability and security.