ATHENS — Government spokesperson Stelios Petsas, in an interview with Alpha 989 radio on Tuesday, highlighted the differences between the current lockdown and the first lockdown in March and April. He said that the average number of SMS messages used by citizens in the first phase of the lockdown was 2.6 million, whereas now many elderly people had grown more accustomed and preferred sending an SMS to printed or hand-written movement documents. He noted that one of the reasons for the second lockdown was a degree of complacency and fatigue with the measures, as the generally good infection rate figures in Greece led to an attitude that it was OK to not follow the protection measures recommended by the scientists to the letter.

Regarding the search for a vaccine, he said that Greece participates in all the fora needed for the supply of the vaccine and the European Union has signed pre-purchase agreements with Astra Zeneca and other companies.

"We are in contact with Pfizer directly, as well as through the European Commission. Many millions of vaccines have been secured that can be administered in the first three months of 2021," he said, adding that "we are in contact with four companies. The most important thing is when the vaccine will be available, in order to start vaccinations."

Petsas said that at 18:00 on Tuesday, Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias will unveil the whole programme in order to have a smooth transition to the "peak of admissions to ICUs that we are expecting to happen this week," he said.