PM Mitsotakis announces three-week horizontal lockdown in Greece from Saturday at 06:00

The prime minister said he chose to change the familiar format of his address to the nation and include Tsiodras in order to emphasise that the government is acting on the advice of experts, on the basis of the science.

Mitsotakis said that the government wanted the citizens to once again be allies in this effort, displaying the same spirit of solidarity as in first wave of the pandemic. He noted that the second lockdown would be similar with that imposed in March but with some significant differences, chief among which will be that schools and kindergartens will remain open apart from high-schools and lyceums, which will operate remotely, and the universal use of masks in all areas.

Regarding the reasons for taking the measures now, Mitsotakis said this was prompted "because we saw an exponential rise in cases" and in a bid to act early.

• The main points of the announcements of Sotiris Tsiodras
• From the beginning of the pandemic we have increased the tests 20 times. We do over 20,000 tests a day.
• The positivity of the tests we do now exceeds 9%. This indicates a major epidemic in the country.
• Never before in modern history have we had so many patients with a virus that causes pneumonia. Neither we nor the rest of Europe.
• In Thessaloniki 78% of ICU-covid beds are occupied.
• The health system will be under pressure in the coming days.
• More people are entering hospitals than those leaving.
• The deaths mainly concern the elderly, but we also have 4 cases in the ages 55-64 & 4 cases in the ages 45-54.