First Covid-19 death reported in Greek migrant camp

Greek officials announced the first coronavirus death of a migrant living in a camp on Sunday.

The victim was a 61-year-old Afghan, a father of two children, who had been living in the Malakasa camp near Athens, the asylum ministry said. He died while being treated in a hospital in Athens.

The Malakasa camp, and other migrant facilities have been on quarantine lockdown since Sept. 7.

It is recalled earlier this month, a fire broke out at Moria reception and registration center on the island of Lesvos, leaving about 12,000 people stranded. Most of them have moved to the new camp on a former military firing range at Kara Tepe.

Greece recorded 218 new cases of COVID-19 in the latest 24-hour reporting period, the largest daily spike since the first case was registered in the country in late February.

This raises the total number of cases to 17,444.

2,825 are considered to be related to travel from abroad and 7,242 are related to an already known case.

Sixty-eight individuals are in ICU. Their median age is 68 years, and 16 of them are women. 86.8% have an underlying condition or are aged 70 years and above.

A total of 200 patients have been discharged from ICUs since the start of the pandemic in Greece.

The country’s pandemic death toll stands at 379. The median age of all was 78 years and 96.6% of the deceased had an underlying condition and/or age of 70 years or more.