Development Minister – The market picture from the first day of implementation of the measures was satisfactory

The possibility for local restrictive measures, but only for the unvaccinated, was left open by the Minister of Development and Investment, Adonis Georgiadis, speaking to SKAI tv, while once again he ruled out a lockdown.

“There will be no lockdown. Not because it is impossible to find ourselves in difficult situations, unfortunately this can not be excluded, with 35% of citizens unvaccinated. The reason the lockdown will not take place is the fact that the government has no moral right to violate the constitutional freedoms of those who are vaccinated, who, by choosing to be vaccinated, are no longer in danger of losing their lives. So you can’t tell them I’m ‘shutting you in the house,'” he said.

He noted that the problem with the pandemic is that those who are vaccinated can also contract and can transmit, but they do not die, do not go to the intensive care unit and do not burden the health system, unlike the unvaccinated, who as is said that if they contract the disease, 1 in 10 may die.

“There could be local restrictive measures, but our general principle is that these will also apply to those who are not vaccinated. We try as much as possible so that the horizontal measures do not greatly affect the lives of the vaccinated”, he added.

However, Mr. Georgiadis pointed out that from the day the measures for the vaccinated were announced, suddenly the vaccination program “picked up” and 20,000-30,000 appointments are made per day.

Asked why no rapid tests were imposed on supermarkets, he replied that the government did not want to block access to that minority of citizens who not only do not get the vaccine, but do not get tested either. “You can not let these people die of hunger,” he said.

There was no significant change in turnover

Regarding the market image from the first day of implementation of the measures, the Minister of Development stated that he moved satisfactorily, without problems and significant changes in the turnover of companies. “We have the ability to monitor from the electronic trading system what happens in the market every day, that is, from VAT receipts. We are also able to communicate with many stores throughout Greece. The first day of implementation of the measures did not have the effect that the representatives of the traders advertised in the previous days. There was no significant change in the turnover on Saturday, November 6, and Saturday, October 30. In fact, with clients I talked to yesterday, they told me that they feel more secure with the measures, because they had been afraid,” he commented.

Responding to the reactions of the traders, he stated that “I respect what the traders say because fines are imposed on them due to faulty controls, but there is a strong objection. If we say that the stores have no responsibility, no one will check. “If no one controls it, the main goal, which is to control the pandemic, will not be achieved.”

Natural gas prices have fallen in recent days

Regarding the price increases in energy, Mr. Georgiadis stressed that the prices of natural gas have fallen in recent days and if this continues, there will soon be a normalization of the market. Asked if the government plans to further support households and businesses, he noted that “the government’s motto is no one will be left alone. We are the government that has given the most to the most. ”

Finally, given the difficulty that companies face in accessing finance, he said that in the new NSRF “we will use money to grant loans with state guarantee”.