Vasilis Kikilias

Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias on Wednesday said that while hospital admissions are starting to even out with releases, the public health system is still skating on very thin ice, with Covid-19 intensive care wards at 83% of capacity nationwide.

Greece's national vaccination campaign, which is set to begin if all goes well in January, is the largest health endeavor the country has ever organized, according to Health Minister Vasilis Kikilias during his briefing on Wednesday to representatives of parliamentary parties. 

The campaign, he stressed, concerns all of society.

Twenty-one lawmakers, doctors by training, volunteered to help overwhelmed hospitals during the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in Greece.

The Union of Greek Prosecutors says the full operation of the courts during the three-week lockdown has magnified the risk of the coronavirus spreading to staff and the public.

The Athens and Piraeus hospital doctors' association (EINAP) has called on Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias to facilitate an increase in the number of regular surgeries from the current rate of 50 percent of the monthly average in 2019 to 80 percent over the next 10 days.

Greek Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias on Thursday received US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt at his office in Athens for talks on further strengthening the exchange medical equipment, technology and knowhow, as Greece took delivery of 200,000 antibody tests from US medical device developer Abbott Laboratories.

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou thanked the country's doctors, nurses and other hospital workers for their "self-sacrifice" as "front-line fighters" in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic during a visit to the capital's Evangelismos Hospital on Tuesday.

The Health Ministry has appointed a scientific committee to oversee the acquisition of new intensive care unit beds for the National Health System (ESY), with the aim that Greece reaches the European average of 12 beds per 100,000 citizens.

Greece's former health minister, cardiologist and university professor Dimitris Kremastinos, has died of the new coronavirus, Greek officials said Friday. He was 78.

Greece's former health minister, cardiologist and university professor Dimitris Kremastinos, has died of the new coronavirus, Greek officials said Friday. He was 78.