Greece records cases of South African covid-19 strain

An extremely contagious variant of Covid-19 that has locked down South Africa, has been identified in Greece.

"The first detection of the mutation was found in the area of Thessaloniki, there is no reason to panic. The strain was found in a church official. In any case with the assistance of the Metropolis and of the people of the parishes involved we will conduct sweeping tests in the wider regions and follow the contacts' path" Citizen Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias said.

He said that they do not know how it came to Greece.

Hardalias also noted that the vaccination plan will continue as normal.

“We will be doing screenings to isolate the persons who have been in contact with the patient,” said Panayiotis Arkoumaneas, head of the National Public Health Organisation.

Latest covid-19 numbers in Greece

Greece recorded 795 new cases of COVID-19 in the latest 24-hour reporting period.

This raises the total number of cases to 156,473.

5,936 are considered to be related to travel from abroad and 48,939 are related to an already known case.

Two hundred and fifty-seven individuals are in ICU. Their median age is 69 years. 86.8% have an underlying condition or are aged 70 years and above.

A total of 1,106 patients have been discharged from ICUs since the start of the pandemic in Greece.

The country’s pandemic death toll stands at 5,779. The median age of all was 79 years and 95.5% of the deceased had an underlying condition and/or age of 70 years or more.

Greece remains the only ‘green’ country on European coronavirus map

For three weeks, Greece has been the only country showing mostly green zones on the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) coronavirus map, indicating a low rate of novel coronavirus infections.

The map aims to support the Council Recommendation on a coordinated approach to the restriction of free movement in response to the pandemic.