Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday decried the accusations voiced by the opposition about the poor handling of the COVID-19 pandemic by the government as far-fetched
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2021) Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday decried the accusations voiced by the opposition about the poor handling of the COVID-19 pandemic by the government as far-fetched.
The prime minister spoke to the Greek parliament on the matter in response to a number of claims made recently by Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the country's left-wing Syriza opposition party the second largest faction in the legislative body. In particular, Tsipras blamed Mitsotakis' cabinet for the country's COVID-19 death rate, which, reportedly, is among the highest in Europe.
Mitsotakis denied the accusation and noted that Greece had a better death rate compared to the EU average in terms of fatalities per million of population.
"It is unfair as well as wrong to isolate data from specific weeks, rather than focus on the big picture," the prime minister was quoted as saying by the Greek newspaper Kathimerini.
Tsipras also accused the government of failing to conduct the national immunization campaign effectively, as well as understating the severity of the outbreak in the country.
In response, the prime minister said Tsipras was "tolerating doublespeak" within his party regarding the vaccination issue, citing the scandal around Pavlos Polakis, a Syriza member and former deputy health minister, who had come under fire earlier this year for publicly criticizing the safety of COVID-19 vaccines.
As of Monday, Greece has confirmed nearly 694,000 COVID-19 cases and 15,375 related deaths. The country has so far administered a total of over 12.3 million vaccine doses, with some 6.3 million people, or almost 59% of the population, fully immunized.
