New chief appointed at Greece’s National Organization for Public Health

The key Health Ministry agency responsible for Greece’s response to the pandemic has been appointed a new president following the resignation of Panagiotis Arkoumaneas last week.

Theoklis Zaoutis takes over as chief of the National Organization for Public Health (EODY) after meeting with Health Minister Thanos Plevris on Tuesday morning.

“The task ahead is tough,” Zaoutis said in comments to Kathimerini following the meeting, stressing that keeping the public better informed on the course of the pandemic is one of his top priorities.

Zaoutis is a professor of pediatric medicine at Athens University and an emeritus professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania, having previously served as chair of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Philadelphia Children’s Hospital from 2014 to 2018. He was also one of the two final candidates for the post of director of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in 2015 and is currently a consultant for the World Health Organization’s regional office for Europe in Greece.

He has served on Greece’s expert Committee for the Protection of Public Health – which advises the government on coronavirus policy – since the start of the pandemic.