Greek Epidemiologist Tsiodras Warns Virus Spreading "At Very High Speed"

During a joint address to the Greek nation at noon on Thursday, alongside Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis, the country’s most eminent epidemiologist warned that the sharp uptick in the rates of transmission seen in the last few days shows that the cities is spreading at extremely high speeds.
While calmly presenting the epidemiological data which prompted the decision for a full nationwide lockdown in Greece beginning on Saturday morning, Dr. Sotiris Tsiodras  declared that “The virus is moving a very high speeds, with a very significant transmission in recent days.”
The beloved physician, who became a staple in the lives of most Greek people in his nightly addresses to the nation during the Spring lockdown, presented a series of charts, with the Prime Minister explaining that this was the presentation that was also made to him three times a week.
The medical professor pointed to the curve for the spread of the virus and also gave a breakdown of the spread per age group, which showed that the virus was now spreading aggressively among the most vulnerable age groups.
Tsiodras noted that more than 1,000 people over 65 years old, to whom the virus presents the highest danger, were identified as confirmed cases in the last seven days. “This, in itself, is definitive,” he stated, noting that based on the Greek data it was possible to mathematically estimate the risk that a patient will need to be admitted to hospital or even an ICU if they have Covid-19.
Men over the age of 75 are at especially high risk for this.
The epidemiologist said that the number of tests carried out in the country had increased twenty-fold since September 10, and that these had shown an increase of positive test results exceeding nine percent.
If one also took into account the aggressiveness of the virus in Greece, this effectively meant that one in 10 people with symptoms at this time were infected with coronavirus, he explained.
The professor warned that this would put unbearable pressure on the healthcare system in the coming days, and that the hospital admissions will not be confined to the elderly.
“Never before in recent history have we had so many hospital patients, approximately 1,600 last night, from a virus that causes pneumonia,” he stated.
“Never before in recent history, neither here nor in the rest of Europe,” he emphasised, noting that the average rate of new hospital admissions in the last seven days exceeds 170 per day.
Tsiodras also pointed to an increased gap between admissions and discharges, with more people being admitted than discharged, and said that with rates of infection at this level, there would be increased admissions among younger age groups.
“We will see admissions of people aged 45-54; (there were) 93 people in this category in recent days. Correspondingly, in the ages 35-44, (there have been) 50 people in this category in recent days.
“And there will, of course, be admissions that will lead to serious outcomes, to admissions to ICUs and even deaths at younger ages,” the professor added.
He pointed to a spike in admissions to ICUs since October 26, which had risen to 213 on Wednesday night — representing 60 percent of all the ICUs set aside for Covid-19 cases in the country — while in Thessaloniki the occupancy rate was 78 percent.
Tsiodras also reported that there were 191 patients on ventilators, indicating a significant increase in the patients that were very seriously ill. Of these, he added, there were 27 people aged 55-64 and 18 people aged 45-54 in ICUs, with males being more seriously affected than females.