The number of confirmed coronavirus cases skyrocketed in Greece to 97 new cases in the last four days, 52 of them in the last 24 hours. The total number of infection increased to 3,049 from 2,952 on Thursday, June 4. The increase comes as the country is preparing to open its gates to foreign tourists without Covid-19 test and quarantine on June 15.
According to the Greek Health Ministry, 30 cases of the 97 refer to travelers who came from abroad and 29 to residents of the regional unit of Xanthi, in north-eastern Greece.
Local media report that the majority of the 29 cases in Xanthi are in the municipalities of Mykis and Topiro, and only a few in the municipality of Xanthi. Myki was placed in quarantine at the peak of the pandemic, and the Xanthi area counts over 100 confirmed cases and 10 deaths.
The local medical association said that they were trying to find out about the spread of the virus.
According to Alpha TV, five of the new confirmed cases have been detected in Kozani, western Macedonia. Among them is a military officer who was previous in Preveza, western Epirus, and a couple that drove Greece from the Czech Republic.
Other new cases have been detected in Thiva, Tripoli and Lamia, where a 86-year-old man and his grandson recently returned form the USA and the grandson broke the quarantine.
“Anyone who thinks we have gotten rid of the coronavirus is wrong,” head of Civil Protection Nikos Hardalias warned and urged the citizens to stay on alert and keep the hygiene rules including social distancing.
“The virus is in decline, but this doesn’t mean it’s gone,” he added.
The dramatic increase has alerted health authorities who said on Monday that they will resume the daily briefing on coronavirus. The briefing was reduced to 3 times per week due to consecutive decrease of new cases in the last days of May.
At the last live briefing, Hardalias had said then, that “if we return for the briefing, this would mean that things were …difficult.”
According to the Monday statement of the Health Ministry, of the total 3,049 infections, 690 cases (22.6%) are considered to be related to travel abroad and 1,735 (56.9%) are related to an already known case.
10 patients are intubated in hospitals Intensive Care Units. Their average age is 75 and four of them are women.
80% of the intubated patients have underlying health issues or are over 70 years old.
A total of 115 patients have been discharged from the ICUs isnce the outbreak.
Death toll stands at 182. Among the deceased were 55 (30.2%) women.
Their average age was 76.
95.6% of the deceased had underlying health issue disease and / or age 70 and over.
PS No wonder there is an increase of coronavirus infections. Normal citizens but also government officials have started to behave more relaxed than they should and crowd nicely in bars and churches.
Just to say, I always love the P.S.’s. Always they make me smile. Wryly.
I considered going to Greece for a holiday dispite due the covid since Balkan countries quickly imposed social distancing and lockdowns. The people of these countries were very disciplined during period of enforcement.
I watched on daily basis how the numbers are progressing and considered the risk to be within acceptable limits.
Meanwhile, almost all of the countries on Balkan did reduce the governmental enforcement of measures, and now we see large outbrakes in:
– Greece
– Serbia
– Skopje (they just bettered their record number this week)
– Bulgaria (to lesser extent)
Now having a vacation on a foreign land looks like a very risky idea.
Lets hope this will make people sit up and think social distance has disappeared here in Volos..!!!
Quite so, Zeb! Here on Zakynthos we have been very lucky with no new cases for nearly three weeks.
We would like to keep it that way but, for a few days now, there have been many ‘tourists’ from the mainland on the beaches, not social distancing. Please, people of Greece, do not fall into the same trap of relaxation of the rules as in the UK. This pandemic is far from over.