N. Iliopoulos: The government is monitoring the disaster – Free access to tests for everyone

“The government is just watching the catastrophe,” SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance spokesman Nassos Iliopoulos told Ionian TV, the main news bulletin, on Tuesday night, December 28th.

“I can not think of a reason to explain why, while already yesterday we had a record number of cases and we all expected that today the situation will be worse, the government announced measures to take effect on January 3,” said Mr. Iliopoulos and added: “I do not know if the reason was not to spoil Mr. Mitsotakis’s vacation, but it certainly was not the protection of public health.”

In an interview, earlier, on the radio station “Alpha 9,89 FM”, the SYRIZA spokesman stressed: “Even today the government refuses to do the obvious.” Addressing questions to the government, he pointed out: “Why did it take a month to proceed – even to a vague – teleworking measure? Why did it take so long for the transport situation to go away? holidays, will they open the way they closed? Will we have classes of 29 students with 15,000 and 20,000 cases per day? “.

He also recalled the statement of the Deputy Minister of Finance, Theodoros Skylakakis, in Parliament, that “the budget for 2022 has been based on the assumption that the pandemic ends at the beginning of the year.” “That is, the government consciously passed a budget, which does not include in its plan the treatment of the pandemic,” he explained.

He even clarified on “Ionian TV” that “any restrictive measure must be combined with a corresponding measure of financial support, such as, for example, measures in catering”. “Otherwise we are talking about a policy that plunges thousands of families into poverty,” he added.

Speaking to “Alpha 9.89”, Mr. Iliopoulos stated that “Mr. Georgiadis, in fact, admitted this morning that Mr. Mitsotakis was lying when he stated that we are in the last mile”. “And this is because the country” sells tourism “, as Mr. Georgiadis said”, he commented. “Of course we have a prime minister who has so far declared the end of the pandemic four times,” he said, noting that “the last time he did it was 20 days ago, at a ND party event.”

“This man, who says every four months that we have defeated the pandemic, is obviously dangerous to public health,” said the SYRIZA spokesman, adding: “It is this policy that has brought the country twice as high as the European average in losses per million inhabitants “. “Unfortunately, it seems that in December alone we will reach almost 2,500 losses,” he said.

Emphasizing that “the measures announced by ND in no way correspond to the current situation”, he reiterated the proposals of SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance: “Immediately change the testing policy, with massive free access to rapid and molecular. “who has come in contact with a case or has a positive rapid test, does not have free access to molecular testing. This is done in a number of European countries, here we have abandoned the tracing”.

“There must also be a new plan by the government to open schools after the holidays and there must be more courageous measures to implement telework,” Iliopoulos said.

Finally, he noted that “here and now the private clinics and the military hospitals must enter the battle and a plan of real strengthening of the NSS must be implemented”. “It is not possible to enter the new year with a budget that cuts 820 million euros from the state funding of the Ministry of Health. This is not a battle plan, it is a disaster plan,” concluded the SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance spokesman.

Source: AMPE