Dark Day in Greece: Record Numbers of Cases, Deaths, and Intubations Thursday

A stunning 3,316 cases of Covid-19 were diagnosed in Greece on Thursday, breaking the previous record of 2,917 cases, and 50 people who had suffered from Covid-19 have died in the country. There are currently 310 intubated patients in intensive care units around Greece.
Thursday’s coronavirus figures represent the highest numbers of deaths, cases, and intubated patients recorded in one day since the beginning of the pandemic.
A great number — 828 — of Thursday’s 3,316 cases were recorded in Thessaloniki, where the state has conducted thousands of rapid Covid tests outside its Papanikolaou Hospital for residents of the city.
With a pattern of increased cases and a large number of intubated patients, the northern Greek city has quickly become the epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic in Greece.
Officials fear that the huge number of patients in the city’s ICUs have put a strain on the hospitals in Thessaloniki, which are now functioning with a small number of available beds in their Covid units for people suffering with the virus.
Doctors in Thessaloniki have warned that, without immediate action, the city could turn into Bergamo, the Italian city where hospitals and doctors were flooded with an overwhelming amount of Covid-19 patients at the start of the pandemic.
Of the 3,316 new cases announced on Thursday, just 24 were identified during testing at Greece’s points of entry.
In total, 66,637 cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in Greece since the beginning of the pandemic, including all those who have recovered from the virus. Of this total, 4,587 are associated with foreign travel and 17,773 with contact with a known case.
Of the 310 intubated patients, 82.9% are over the age of 70 or suffer from preexisting conditions. Their median age is 65, and 88 of the patients are women. A total of 353 patients have been discharged from ICUs around the country.
The 50 new deaths recorded on Thursday bring the number of total fatalities in the country to 959. Of those who lost their lives after suffering with the virus, a total of 387 have been women.
The median age of those who passed away from Covid-19 is 80, and 96.9% of them were over the age of 70 or had underlying health issues.
In other coronavirus news, the UK has now put Greece back on its list of countries for which returning travelers must now be quarantined, due to the large spike in the virus in Greece presently.
Only those arriving back in the UK from the islands of Corfu, Crete, Kos, Rhodes and Zakynthos will be exempt from the 14-day self-isolation required by this ruling.