ATHENS — "If necessary we will shut down primary schools as well but not based on epidemiological characteristics. The children are not in danger… we are worried about mobility because roughly 650,000 children are in primary education and their parents and grandparents take them to school. This contributes to the increase of the mobilisation, as we have observed from the number of SMS," government spokesperson Stelios Petsas stated on Friday in an interview with the radio Parapolitika.

Petsas repeated that complacency and laxity were the enemies that led to a second lockdown. "If we observe the measures we have… then it will not be necessary to extend the lockdown or make the measures stricter." He explained, however, that "in order to lift the lockdown we must reach a point where the number of cases does not threaten the balance and stability of the health system," he said, adding that the system can cope with 200-400 cases a day. "Unfortunately, even today, one week after the total lockdown and roughly 14 days after its implementation in Thessaloniki, we observe a high degree of mobility and we must reduce this further. This is the main recommendation of all of us," he added.

Petsas said that the government will do whatever is necessary to reduce the mobility, which promotes the spread of the virus.

On the support measures, he said that the measures announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in parliament for emergency support ahead of Christmas will be announced next week.

Regarding primary residence auctions, he stated that the provision for their suspension until the end of November has progressed and a further extension is being examined.

Finally, on the events for the Polytechnic uprising on November 17, he said that the government has made a decision that there will not be a march and that an operational plan will be launched to prevent it: "From what we heard on Thursday, some political parties will try to do something which is contrary to what Greek society expects from them, namely responsibility from all. As we did not have any parades on March 25 and October 28, as we did not go to church at Easter, this year there will be no march for the Polytechnic. We are experiencing an unprecedented situation and we should all adapt without ideological obsessions" he underlined.