ATHENS — "We will wait a bit and see what happens regarding Easter. The pandemic's momentum changes from day to day," the general secretary of Commerce and Consumer Protection Panagiotis Stamboulidis said on Monday to MEGA TV, regarding the opening of the retail market.

"The [epidemiologists'] committee is an independent agency and operates according to the requirements of its mission…. The government prepares proposals and the committee gives them a 'green light'. Before announcing the opening of the retail market on 5 of April, the proposal was first passed by the epidemiologists' committee," he explained.

"Every week we present to the committee the proposals and the country's economic condition. The committee should be aware of the repercussions of every decision on public finances. Today we made a small step, it is not the opening of the market, it has strict restrictions," Stamboulidis added.

"I can't guarantee that the retail market won't close again and I agree that the click away system for shops should not have stopped," he added.

Finally, he said that the government will see how things go this week: "If we managed to maintain some order in the market and do not see congestion in shopping streets we can carry on but if the measures are not observed, our aim is to protect people's lives".