ATHENS — Government spokesperson Stelios Petsas on Wednesday referred to the possibility of a second lockdown in an interview with SKAI TV, saying that this cannot be ruled out as an option.

"We are not there yet. We simply say that we need to have all the options on the table. The prime minister on Monday asked the Experts' Committee to draw up a plan of possible measures, which will be activated in an relatively automatic way when we see that the epidemiological data is deteriorating," he explained.

He underlined that "the problem is still with us, it is dynamic and evolving and we always take the measures that are needed. We will do whatever is necessary to deal with it. We do not rule out anything. The protection of public health and of human life is not weighed on any scale."

Petsas said that what worries the government "is the explosion of cases globally in the last period," adding that Greece wants to avoid the worst, which would be a second lockdown, but "what we want above all is not to put our fellow citizens at risk and put so much pressure on the health system that it is unable to offer the citizens the care they deserve."