Greek shipping minister Yiannis Plakiotakis returned home on Tuesday and reported for duty nearly a month after being diagnosed with Covid-19.
The 52-year-old conservative politician had been in hospital in Athens since 24 November. Plakiotakis was just one of several high-profile Greeks to have contracted the virus as the second wave of the pandemic swept over the country.
“I felt the anxiety of the disease, experienced its loneliness and witnessed the superhuman efforts undertaken by doctors and nurses,” Plakiotakis said in video message released by the government.
“Faithfully comply with safety measures, protect yourselves and your dear ones, and get an injection when your turn comes.”
About 100 people have died per day in Greece over the last month. With a death toll of 12.16 per 100,000 of population since 30 November, Greece is currently worse afflicted than the UK, France or the US, according to figures by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
Greece’s wealthy shipowning community has continued to provide key support to the country’s national health system over that period.
In the latest one to be announced last week, Mytilineos family-backed shipping company M/Maritime financed the delivery of an ambulance especially designed to protect health workers from infected patients.
The first of its kind to be used in Greece, the vehicle is equipped with a negative pressure system that filters the air in the patient's cabin, allowing for the safe transport of suspected Covid-19 victims to hospital.
M/Maritime donated the ambulance through Syn-Enosis, a charity set up by the Union of Greek Shipowners, which so far has collected $16m in contributions from members.
