Greece Announces 269 More Coronavirus Cases; Experts Say Uptick Not Due to Tourism

Greece’s Undersecreatry for Civil Protection Nikos Hardalias announced Tuesday that the country has detected 269 new cases of the coronavirus over the last 24 hours. There were two deaths in the same span of time, bringing the total of those who have died with the virus to 232.
Eighty-two, or 35.3%, of those who succumbed with the virus were female. The median age of our dying fellow citizens was 77 years and 95.3% had an underlying disease and / or age 70 years and over.
Currently, 25 Greek citizens are intubated in ICUs across the country, with a median age of 67 years. Just seven, or 28%, are female. Just over half, or 52%, suffer from an underlying disease or are aged 70 and over. A total of 137 patients have been discharged from the ICU since the beginning of the pandemic.
Only thirty-nine of the total cases diagnosed today were detected after checks completed at the country’s gateways and entrance points, while ten additional cases were picked up by voluntary testing. The total number of coronavirus cases is now 7,472, of which 55.3% are male.
Almost one quarter, or 1,742 of these cases, are considered to be related to foreign travel; and 3,516, or 47.1%, are connected to an already-recorded case.
 

Of the 220 domestic cases diagnosed in the last 24 hours, 25 are associated with known travel from outside the country, while 18 have been linked with a recent trip within Greece.
Including today’s case total, there are now 98 cases in the region of Attica, 15 of which are connected with a recent trip within the country; there are 70 in the region of Thessaloniki, of which 25 are associated with known foreign travel and three with a recent trip within Greece.

Hardalias: Most transmission due to overcrowding and non-compliance with measures
In a press briefing earlier on Tuesday, Greece’s Deputy Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias stated that the country was “at a better epidemiological level than many other countries but if we do not observe the protection measures, things will go bad.”

Hardalias noted that currently, 83 percent of the new coronavirus infections are domestic and are the result of people crowding together, and only 17 percent are imported — adding that tourism is not responsible for the outbreak. The numbers of infections are now typically in the 200’s, far more than was seen in the first few months of the pandemic.
The Deputy Minister said that the country is “far away from a general lockdown in the cities,” but stricter measures of already-existing regulations will be imposed whenever necessary.
“The pandemic does not show any signs of decline, and a special protocol will be announced in the next days for the working places and for the opening of schools,” Hardalias added.
Greece’s Minister of Health Vassilis Kikilias also stated said on Tuesday that the Oxford University/Astra Zeneca vaccine is expected to arrive in Greece in December, but he clarified that there will be a priority for who will be the first to receive it.