PM Mistotakis: Greece responded to an unprecedented crisis

In a video conference connecting the Maximos Mansion with the service’s headquarters in Chalandri that includes collaboration with security and armed forces, Mitsotakis said that the infrastructure of Civil Protection “will accompany us in the future, since we will be called upon sooner or later to deal with similar crises in the future.”

“We were called upon to manage an unprecedented crisis of a medical nature, and you handled it with great efficiency, a great sense of responsibility,” the premier told the service and its chief, Civil Protection Deputy Minister for Crisis Management Nikos Chardalias.

“Particularly in specialised issues related to the process of contact tracking,” Mitsotakis said, “you managed to do an excellent job under difficult circumstances.”

Among the programs Chardalias described to the premier were applications that pinpoint the location of confirmed coronavirus cases, and in terms those who have need of hospitalisation for the Covid-19 illness caused by the virus, it provides the ratio of patients to available ICU units in the hospitals they are in.

Another app includes all individuals required to self-isolate (e.g. after returning from abroad infected or becoming infected by others in Greece), and pinpoints their location on maps so they may be either called or visited to ensure they comply. All data, Hardalias noted, is classified at different levels and accessible only by designated officials.

Mitsotakis said that “the coronavirus forced us to enter an accelerator, and Greece responded,” and said that it was part of the government’s policy that the service be ready to assume every type of crisis, especially natural disasters and the approaching fire season in the Greek summers.

“We have found out that [besides natural catastrophes] we have other threats as well: There are invisible enemies who may prove to be particularly dangerous and require a different degree of preparedness and readiness,” the prime minister said.