Greece’s Health Ministry confirmed on Wednesday morning one more case of coronavirus, the eight case in the country. The patient is a man in Thessaloniki, the husband of the 5. case confirmed on Saturday.
The patient is in a room of negative pressure in AHEPA hospital, one of the 13 designated to deal with the contagious disease. He has reportedly “mild symptoms.”
The man was considered high-risk contact” and was already tested after his wife was confirmed positive. However, the first test showed “low virus load.” He was advised to house isolation. A second test was confirmed “positive” even though the “virus load was still low,” medical issues website iatropedia reports.
The 5. confirmed case is a woman who contracted the coronavirus after contact with “patient zero,” who has traveled to North Italy and on Sunday, February 23.
The man was a “reasonably high-risk contact and would have been isolated, thus significantly limiting the chance of transmitting the virus to other people,” media note.
As the 5. case is a teacher, several schools were closed in Thessaloniki on Tuesday. Education and Health authorities closed a total of 28 schools either because high-school classes were in education trip in North Italy, or because confirmed cases had to do directly (teachers, tutors) or indirectly (children) with the school system. The period that these schools remain closed varies and is up to 14 days.
Greek health authorities confirmed late on Saturday that three more people were tested positive to coronavirus, raising the total number of infections in the country to seven. One of the people is in Thessaloniki and two in Athens.
According to first media information, the infected woman in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, is a friend of the patient zero. She is hospitalized in AHEPA, the same hospital as the patient zero and her infected son are since the middle of the week. No details about the health condition of the latest coronavirus patient have become known.
In Athens, tested positive is a man who had recently traveled to virus-hit region in Italy.
The second case refers also to a man, who was in close contact with the 3. confirmed case.
All infected patients are Greek nationals.
They are in isolation in designated hospitals.
38-year-old patient zero in Thessaloniki and two more infected women, aged 36 and 40, in Athens had traveled to northern Italy in the previous week.
Health authorities have been testing dozens of people with whom the confirmed cases have been in contact. Overwhelming majority of these tests were negative.
Greek authorities have imposed extraordinary safety measures, among others, also cancelling Carnival events scheduled for the weekend.
Eleven schools in Athens were closed on Friday and were to disinfected as one of the patient is working a private tutor for school students and the other has three school children.
When the first case was confirmed on Wednesday, Greeks started to “raid ” supermarkets for panic purchases.
PS Supermarket shelves were full in our neighborhood today, although Saturday and a long weekend with Clean Monday. The panic is over…?
