With 2,327 new cases of COVID-19 and two deaths recorded in Greece over the last 24 hours, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis reassures citizens that the country’s economy will not close shut down again.

According to the National Public Health Organisation (NPHO) six of the new cases were intercepted during checks at the country’s borders with 153 connected to overseas travel. Of the total number of cases, 1,986 are linked to community transmission and a known source. At the moment, 68 patients are new admissions to hospitals and 142 patients are in ICUs.

Of the hospitalised patients, 67 per cent are male with 66 years, their median age and an underlying health condition. The average age for new admissions to hospitals has dropped to 56 over the last days. The median age for new transmissions is now 42. Since the beginning of the pandemic the number of deaths has reached 12,787, of which 95.2 pct had either an underlying condition or were aged above 70 years old while the number of people that have recovered and have been released from the ICUs is 2,735.

Meanwhile, less than 38 per cent of the country’s population has been fully vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine, a number, that according to health authorities is half of the required roll-out to achieve population immunisation.

At the same time the Prime Minister has decided to make vaccinations mandatory for health workers, breaking his promise at the beginning of the national roll-out. SKAI TV has recently conducted a poll on whether or not mandatory jabs are ethical.

There has been debate about whether mandatory vaccinations are ethical, though a poll released by SKAI TV showed most Greeks were in favor of the move to curb a resurging health crisis that threatens tourism and the economy again.

Surprisingly, even though the vaccination numbers in Greece are low, most Greeks appeared to be in favour of the mandatory vaccination in order to prevent further economic breakdown and to protect the tourism industry from shutting down.

Currently, the government has had to reimpose restrictions to restaurants an other entertainment related venues, only allowing seated customers, something that is threatening the newly opened tourism industry in Greece mid-summer.

There are fears the highly contagious Delta variant will soon be the dominant strain in the country.