Fourth Covid wave ‘unavoidable,’ says health ministry official 

A fourth wave of Covid-19 infections in Greece is “unavoidable,” a Health Ministry official said on Thursday, as the country struggles with a new rise in numbers.

Asked why the government lifted recently more health restrictions considering the looming surge in new cases, the Health Ministry secretary general for Primary Health Care, Marios Themistokleous, said: “The economy, society must open up. Lockdowns cannot be introduced [again]…we still have measures in place, it is not open for all, but the more we are vaccinated, the more we can return to normalcy.”

“The [only] way in medicine to get rid of or defeat a pandemic is through vaccination…so all our fellow citizens should be convinced to get vaccinated. There is no other way,” he told broadcaster ANT1.

Themistokleous also said that the National Vaccination Committee is considering green-lighting booster shots for people under the age of 50. 

Health authorities have been reporting more than 3,000 new cases daily since the start of the week, with 3,279 infections announced on Wednesday by the National Organization for Public Health (EODY).