Greece’s latest EU country has given COVID limits on vaccination-free vaccines Coronavirus pandemic News

From next week, people without vaccines will be banned from indoor spaces, even if it is negative for COVID-19.

Greece has become the last country in the European Union to impose more restrictions on those not vaccinated against COVID-19 in recent weeks after rising infections.

In a televised speech to the nation, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said from Monday that people without vaccines will be largely banned from indoor spaces, including restaurants, cinemas, museums and gyms, despite the negative COVID-19.

Greece has so far vaccinated about 62% of the population of about 11 million people. Authorities expected a rate of about 70 percent before the end of the European winter.

“This is a pandemic of not really vaccinated people,” Mitsotakis said. “Greece is deploring unnecessary losses because it does not have vaccination rates in other European countries.”

Under the new Greek rules, vaccination certificates for people over 60 will be valid for seven months after they are issued, with the intention of encouraging them to take a third “booster” shot.

Worshipers attending the church will be allowed to enter with a negative test, Mitsotakis said.

In a subsequent statement, Alexis Tsipras, leader of the main opposition Syriza party, accused Mitsotakis of being “responsible” for the “unprecedented tragedy” that has claimed more than 17,000 deaths from coronavirus in Greece.

The country reported 7,317 new infections and 63 deaths on Thursday. This brought the total to 861,117 infections since the pandemic and the death toll to 17,075.

In early November, the government imposed some restrictions on unvaccinated citizens, but allowed them access to most services if they were given a negative.

Austria, Germany, Slovakia and the Czech Republic restricted the public lives of people without vaccines this week as infections rose throughout Europe.

The Greek prime minister said he would propose to the European Commission that this be a standard for the EU as a whole.

Those who are hesitant to get the vaccine “would have thought otherwise if the unvaccinated people who had been sick could have heard what they experienced in the intensive care units,” Mitsotakis said.

The number of new daily infections has reached record highs in Greece this month, and has put pressure on the already struggling health system and forced the government to promise private sector doctors in five regions of northern Greece to help public hospitals.

The order for publication published in the Official Gazette of the Government on Thursday will be valid for one month.