Kilkis official blames spike in Covid-19 numbers on lab error

The regional governor of the Kilkis said on Tuesday that a spike in the new number of infections reported in the northern Greek region on Monday was the result of a mistake made a private diagnostic lab in the city of Thessaloniki.

In an announcement, Andreas Vergidis said that the lab in question had not reported any of its positive tests to the National Organization for Public Health (EODY) – the Health Ministry agency responsible for collecting and reporting case numbers – since November 24 and released the figures for the period through December 7 as a total.

As result of this “inconceivable mistake,” he said, EODY reported a spike of 102 new infections on Monday, of which 92 were from the specific lab.

The incident, Vergidis added, “shakes public trust at a time that is crucial to the effectiveness of measures aimed at protecting and further bolstering public health against the invisible enemy of Covid-19.”

He went on to call for an investigation that would “restore the credibility of the official agencies and the trust of citizens.”