Daily infection rate remains above 1,000
With daily cases of the coronavirus reaching quadruple digits consistently this week, especially in large urban areas, a subcommittee of epidemiologists which convened Thursday suggested the inclusion of Thessaloniki in the country’s red zones – high-risk areas – along with Attica and Patra.
On a day when a very large number of tests were performed (over 44,000), the National Public Health Organization (EODY) Thursday announced 1,070 new cases of Covid-19 and 25 new deaths.
The number of patients hospitalized in intensive care units stood at 249 Thursday afternoon. Of the new cases, 50% were located in Attica (533 cases).
The recent assessment of infectious disease specialist Professor Sotiris Tsiodras that “the western sector of Athens has a problem” was also confirmed Thursday as 101 cases in the area were identified against an average over the last seven days of 55.14 (20.6 per 100,000 population).
What’s more, an increase in new diagnoses compared to the average number of cases was recorded throughout Attica.
Also Thursday, 81 new cases were detected in Achaia and 87 in Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki borders Halkidiki, one of the regions of the country with a high viral load (33 new cases and 31.2 per 100,000 inhabitants).
At the same time experts are also concerned about the emergence of coronavirus mutations, as another incidence of the British strain was detected in a person who was examined at a health center in Thessaloniki Thursday. In total 205 samples have tested positive for the British strain throughout the country and one for the South African one.
Meanwhile, vaccinations against Covid-19 are continuing, with more than 338,000 doses administered up until Thursday morning. There were some mishaps, however, as 36 vials of the vaccine (216 doses) were withdrawn from a health center in Ioannina due to a failure in the temperature recorder of a vaccine refrigerator. The quantities were immediately replaced and no appointments were missed.
