ATHENS — Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed his satisfaction with the way Greek society has responded to the recommendations for the systematic use of masks to guard against the spread of novel coronavirus and for the steadily increasing number of tests performed per day, at the beginning of the regular government meeting on the progress of the pandemic on Wednesday.

The prime minister particularly pointed out the fact that 17,000 diagnostic tests were carried out on Tuesday for the detection of the virus throughout Greece, adding that he considers it a very positive development that the Covid-19 cases found are consistently a very small proportion of those tested.

After congratulating Professor Sotiris Tsiodras for Tuesday's "excellent briefing" of the citizens, he noted that "society is an ally" in the effort to use face masks. "The sacrifice we are asking of everyone is small in order to avert the worst," he added.