There has been an increase in new Covid-19 infections in the last three weeks, especially in the tourist areas of Greece, according to an emergency briefing given by National Organisation for Public Health (NOPH) experts on Monday.
The experts said the increase in cases is observed mainly in the 18-24 age group, while the rate remains stable for other age groups.
There has also been an increase in reinfections and admissions to ordinary hospital beds each week over the same period, but this has not so far led to an increase in ICU admissions or more Covid-related deaths.
The NOPH president said that the problem was European-wide, with a constant increase in new cases in central, southern and northern countries in Europe.
There was also a steady increase in the number of cases concerning people over 65, while hospital admissions were not at alarmingly high levels in most countries and the number of new cases on ventilators remained low in most European countries.
The dominant coronavirus variant in Greece and Europe is still Omicron, which appears to account for more than half of cases, and its sub-variants BA4 and BA5.
Greece confirmed 11,629 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, the National Public Health Organisation (EODY) said on Sunday, bringing all confirmed infections since the pandemic began to 3,719,839 (daily change: +0.3 pct).
Of the daily total, reinfections are estimated at 2,197 in the last 24 hours, while their total since the pandemic began is estimated at 179,876 (4.6 pct of the total positive results).
There are also 26 deaths recorded in the last 24 hours, bringing the total of pandemic victims to 30,302. Of these, 95.7 pct had an underlying condition and/or were aged 70 or over.
A total of 98 patients are on ventilators in hospitals. Their median age is 70 years and 90.8 pct have an underlying condition and/or are aged 70 or over. Of the total, 39 (39.8 pct) are unvaccinated or partly vaccinated and 59 (60.2 pct) are fully vaccinated.
Another 4,735 have been discharged from ICUs since the pandemic began.
In addition, 265 Covid-19 patients were admitted to hospital in the last 24 hours (daily change: -12.25 pct). The average admission of patients with Covid-19 to hospitals over the last 7 days was 274.
The median age of new infections is 37 years (range: 0.2 to 112 years), while the median age of the deceased is 80 (range: 0.2 to 106 years).
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