Experts expect pandemic summer surge due to Omicron subvariants

Greece will see a surge of Covid-19 this summer, which, however, will not significantly affect the hard indicators, such as ICU hospitalizations and deaths, experts and health authorities have said.

In the last week there was an increase in the number of new infections and the rate of positive tests, while a small increase is recorded in hospitalizations. In contrast, the number of intubated patients is declining, while the number of daily deaths has been stable since the beginning of June (12-13 deaths on average per day).

According to the experts, the momentum that the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 have acquired in our country is the main factor that could drive the summer wave. From the first week of June, one in three cases in which genomic analysis for SARS-CoV-2 was performed was associated with these two subvariants, which seem to easily bypass any immunity that the body develops through vaccination and infection.