Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ Tuesday evening televised address on the coronavirus pandemic focused on a balanced combination of both personal responsibility and governmental measures as equally important in fighting what he called “war with an enemy that is invisible but not invincible,” ANA reports.
Mitsotakis underlined that staying at home and not flocking hospitals on minor symptoms will restrict the virus’ transmission and will give the health system time to deal with emergencies.
He then mentioned that 2,000 newly hired nursing staff was heading to its posts, while a total of 1,900 additional beds were added to the system, with the inclusion among others of NIMITS Hospital as a coronavirus treatment center and the newly built private Attica clinic.
Returning to the economic repercussions of the epidemic, upgraded by WHO to a pandemic globally, the Greek premier stressed that the Eurogroup’s decision to suspend the primary surplus target of 3.5% of GDP for this year meant that “all the costs of the health crisis of the migration crisis will not be included in the 2020 state budget,” nor will expenditures on the unemployed, financially vulnerable, and welfare infrastructures.”
Furthermore, he said, “for the first time, the government will allocate 2 billion euros to assist businesses with reduced turnover, while the state – not the businesses – will assume the cost of part of workers’ wages in affected sectors.” Moreover, all tax and insurance obligations will be suspended, he said.
In cooperation with the Bank of Greece and the European Central Bank, “the state will cover the cost of loan rates and in turn, banks will suspend debt payments for businesses by September,” Mitsotakis announced.
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