Minister sees ‘tiring summer’ as Greece braces for second wave of pandemic

Greece is racing to bolster a public healthcare system battered by a decade of austerity before an expected second wave of the coronavirus pandemic hits the country in the fall, its health minister has said.

"It will be a tiring summer for us, full of work, but this will be a legacy for the country," Vassilis Kikilias told Politico in an interview last week.

"Countries that protected their citizens and didn't have a dramatic impact in the first wave may face more difficulties in the second," he said in a telephone interview last week.

Greece introduced strict measures soon after the virus made its first appearance in the country and has managed to contain its spread more successfully than other countries of a similar size, reporting less than 2,600 cases and 138 deaths on Tuesday.

Following a decade of budget cuts, however, the coronavirus outbreak found...