N. Iliopoulos: Greece twice above the EU average in coronavirus deaths

“The government has capitulated to the fact that today we are at a dead end in the pandemic,” SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance spokesman Nassos Iliopoulos told Epirus TV 1’s main news bulletin last night.

He said that “Greece is twice above the EU average in losses per million inhabitants, while in December alone we have 658 losses”, to comment that “with these data we can only talk about crime”, which ” has the signature of Kyriakos Mitsotakis “.

He added that “even if the 500,000 over 60 who have not been vaccinated were vaccinated tomorrow morning and the 1.5m over 60 were given the third dose, the next 40 to 50 days would be very difficult for the system. health “, this means that” the government has accepted that for the next period, we will have 80 to 100 dead every day “. “It is not possible to hear news about 150 and 170 intubated people outside the ICU”, he noted, adding that “for every person who needs an ICU and it does not exist, the responsibility belongs to the government”.

The representative of SYRIZA called for the immediate entry into battle of private beds and military hospitals, the cancellation of school mergers, the resumption of telework in the public and private sectors, in order to avoid as much as possible the dispersion of means of transport and large workplaces.

Also, mass testing with free access to molecular tests, to vaccinated and unvaccinated, as “it is not possible for an employee – even vaccinated – who has come into contact with a case, to go to work normally the next day.” He stressed the need for immediate strengthening of the public health system, saying that “it is not possible for the permanent employees in the NSS to be 2,500 less today than in 2019” and that “the 800 doctors who are on the waiting lists for recruitment may in a few days be in our hospitals “.

Regarding the vaccination, he stressed that the position of SYRIZA-PS is summed up in the phrase “do it like Portugal”, which “without taking the measures taken by the government here, managed to achieve a very high percentage, running the door-to-door vaccination with the participation not only of doctors, but also of psychologists, social workers, people of the local self-government “.

Regarding the economy, he stated that “the government, first of all, does not use the tools that it already has at its disposal”, noting that “it has proceeded to an unprecedented stoppage of payments regarding the NSRF projects”, since “still, from 2.5 billion that we should normally absorb from the Recovery Fund for 2021, we finally exceed the limit of 150 million “.

He accused the government of “not turning any positive economic climate into real benefits for the social majority”, which “would mean concrete measures such as raising the minimum wage to 800 euros – Greece is currently the only eurozone country which has a lower, lower than the one it had in 2010 “. He also stressed that the Excise Taxes on oil and gas must now be reduced “, accusing the government that” instead of intervening through the Energy Regulatory Authority to keep prices on electricity, instead of interfering in PPC’s tariff policy, it is privatizing PPC “. Finally, he referred to the need to” regulate and write off the private debt that was born during the pandemic “.

He pointed out, finally, that the official opposition wants to highlight with its tours throughout Greece that “in this difficult situation, there is another way, there is a way for things to go differently.”

Source: AMPE