@Repository
public class ReadDaoImpl implements ReadDao{

    private static SessionFactory sessionFactory;

    public static SessionFactory getSessionFactory() {
        return sessionFactory;
    }

    @Autowired
    public static void setSessionFactory(SessionFactory sessionFactory) {
        TenderReadDaoImpl.sessionFactory = sessionFactory;
    }

    @Override
    public List<Read> getAllReads() {

        System.out.println("DEBUG: Inside ReadDaoImpl.getAllReads");

        Session session = sessionFactory.openSession(); // I think that the issue comes from here
        Transaction tx = null;
        ..............................
        ..............................
    }
}

Session session = sessionFactory.openSession();

# ===============================
# = DATA SOURCE
# ===============================

# Set here configurations for the database connection

# Connection url for the database
spring.datasource.url = jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/readsdb?useSSL=false

# Username and password
spring.datasource.username = root
spring.datasource.password = password

# Keep the connection alive if idle for a long time (needed in production)
spring.datasource.testWhileIdle = true
spring.datasource.validationQuery = SELECT 1

# ===============================
# = JPA / HIBERNATE
# ===============================

# Use spring.jpa.properties.* for Hibernate native properties (the prefix is
# stripped before adding them to the entity manager).

# Show or not log for each sql query
spring.jpa.show-sql = true

# Hibernate ddl auto (create, create-drop, update): with "update" the database
# schema will be automatically updated accordingly to java entities found in
# the project
spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto = create-drop

# Naming strategy
spring.jpa.hibernate.naming-strategy = org.hibernate.cfg.ImprovedNamingStrategy

# Allows Hibernate to generate SQL optimized for a particular DBMS
spring.jpa.properties.hibernate.dialect = org.hibernate.dialect.MySQL5Dialect