Rise in Covid death rate, pressure on ICUs worrisome
Even though there has been an apparent stabilization in the third pandemic wave, concerns persist among health authorities over the steady rise in the number of Covid-19 deaths and intensive care cases over the last few days.
Health authorities on Thursday announced 104 deaths, which is the highest daily toll during this wave of the pandemic, even though the majority of elderly people, who are statistically most likely to die, have been vaccinated.
Moreover, by noon on Thursday, there were 819 intubated Covid patients, compared to 809 the day before on Wednesday, and 776 a week before. In addition, 526 coronavirus patients were admitted to hospitals around the country.
A total of 3,833 new cases were announced on Thursday, of which 1,861 were detected in Attica, 521 in Thessaloniki and 127 in Larissa.
The British strain (lineage B.1.1.7) of the virus has been identified at a rate ranging from 25% to 96%, depending on the region, against the total samples tested for mutations in Greece.
According to the National Genomic Surveillance Network, the percentage of the British strain in total samples tested for mutations by region was 96% in Central Greece, 88.5% on Crete and 86.5% in the Ionian Islands. In Attica the relative percentage was 66.2%, in the Peloponnese 69% and in Thessaloniki only 32.6%. The regions with the lowest percentages were Eastern Macedonia and Thrace (25%) and Western Macedonia (29.2%). The percentage across the entire country was 62.31%.
Meanwhile on Thursday, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, met with Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias and signed an agreement for the opening of the Athens Quality of Care and Patient Safety Office, which will serve the needs of Mediterranean countries.
Referring to the pandemic, Kluge stressed that it has pushed the health systems of all countries to their limits, but also provided a unique opportunity to rethink health, how to maintain it and how to deal with similar threats in the future.
