ATHENS — The situation in hospitals remains dire, main opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance leader Alexis Tsipras said on Friday and he emphasised that government vacillation must stop, in a statement after visiting Sismanoglio Hospital.

"The drama and the tragedy is peaking and the worst that could happen to us is that we get used to loss and to looking away from this drama that is unfolding," underlined Tsipras, while noting that there was now no point in talking about the mistakes and oversights that led to this point, "from the celebration of the first phase to the tragedy of the present."

He said that he visited the hospital "to express my deep concern, which I believe is the concern of the vast majority of Greek society. It is neither a time for insupportably light-hearted statements by government officials nor for a communications management of the tragedy. This is the hour to support, as much as we can, the National Health System and its people, it is a time to at least save the human lives that can be saved and it is a time to finally acquire a serious plan for epidemiological surveillance, to multiply the tests performed and to accelerate the vaccinations, securing vaccines from every possible source".

"It is also time to see the pharmaceutical treatments that have already been approved in other countries, and which in Greece have not, unfortunately, been used on a large scale to save human lives.

Concluding he said "I repeat that human life is the most crucial good and the worst that can happen is that we get used to this situation of daily loss and tragedy".