Vasilis Kikilias

Former health minister and respected cardiothoracic surgeon Dimitris Kremastinos has died aged 78 after contracting coronavirus.

Kremastinos had been admitted into Athens' Evangelismos hospital with medical complications related to Covid-19 on March 26.

Greece is seeking  to bolster its public healthcare system (ESY), blighted by a decade of austerity, by increasing the number of intensive care beds and securing long-term employment for contract workers, Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias has said.

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.

Theodoros and Gianna Angelopoulos became the latest Greeks to donate 1 million euros to the fight against the new coronavirus epidemic in Greece, the Health Ministry announced on Monday.

The donation was accepted by Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias and has been channeled into the Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Technology to help bolster its work.

By mid-April, we should be in a position to know whether the strict lockdown measures the Greek government has taken to check the spread of coronavirus - from closing down schools to limiting out-of-house trips altogether - have worked, Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias says.

With all of neighbouring Italy having been confined to their homes the Greek government took the drastic move of shutting down all schools and universities nationwide.

The measure was announced by Health Minister Vasilis Kikilias and signals that the state is prepared to take radical measures to curb the spread of the potentially deadly coronavirus.

Greek Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias on Tuesday announced the closure of all schools and universities to close for 14 days as part of efforts to contain spread of coronavirus. 

The decision relates to all state and public schools, kindergartens and universities, Kikilas said, adding that the measure is preventive and aimed at reducing the spread of the virus. 

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met over the weekend with Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias and other key cabinet ministers, as well as with health experts, to discuss the state's evolving response to the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19), including measures to bolster public safety and the economy to the greatest degree possible.

Greek Health Minister Vasilis Kikilias on Thursday criticised people who dismissed instructions issued by the country's authorities on how to contain the spread Covid-19, after it was reported that some regions of Greece held carnival parades despite their official ban.

Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias and his German counterpart Jens Spahn spoke on the phone late on Wednesday to discuss the need for better coordination and contact among EU member-states over the coronavirus outbreak, state-run news agency ANA-MPA reported Thursday.