Coronavirus Cases in Greece on an Upward Trend

Greece’s daily coronavirus cases remained elevated on Wednesday, as 2,938 total cases were recorded across the country.

The current figure marks 171 fewer instances of the virus than the 3,109 cases that had been recorded on Tuesday, which marked the first time since early May that the country’s daily cases topped 3,000.

Just seven of Wednesday’s total cases were identified during routine Covid-19 testing of tourists at the country’s borders.

Currently, there are 135 patients with the coronavirus on ventilators in Greece, which is two more than the number of patients undergoing the invasive treatment in the country yesterday, Tuesday.

Tragically, seven people suffering from the coronavirus passed away in the country over the past 24-hour period, which is three more than those who died with the virus on Tuesday.

Tourism Minister: Tourists not to blame for rise in coronavirus cases

Neither tourism nor tourist arrivals are to blame for the rise in novel coronavirus cases in Greece, Tourism Minister Haris Theoharis said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a Greek hoteliers conference, he said that, based on statistics from checks carried out at the country’s borders, the opening for tourism was careful and well planned and did not cause damage.

He noted that just 74 positive cases were detected in 100,000 random samples taken at the borders, with the rate of positivity at just 0.07 percent. The rate of positivity at the land borders was 0.01 percent while that in airports was 0.09 percent, he reported.

Greece, which relies on tourism for a fifth of its economy, kicked off the season in May, hoping that revenue would double over compared to 2020 and reach about half of the record it saw in 2019 when more than 30 million people visited the country.

The tourism sector accounts for about one fifth of its economy directly– and undoubtedly much more indirectly.

1,423 cases of coronavirus diagnosed in Attica alone; 323 in Crete

Of the 2,938 new coronavirus cases recorded in Greece in the past 24 hours, 1,423 were located in Attica, home to the Greek capital city of Athens.

In the city of Athens, a total of 330 cases of Covid-19 were identified Wednesday.

A total of 323 coronavirus cases were found in Crete, where the delta variant has taken hold.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, a total of 447,718 cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in the country, including all those who have recovered from the virus.

Of the cases diagnosed in Greece in the past seven days, just 165 are associated with foreign travel and 1,832 have been linked to contact with a known case.

Of the 135 patients intubated currently, 84.4% are over the age of 70 or suffer from preexisting conditions. Their average age is 66.

Additionally, a total of 2,739 patients have been discharged from ICUs around the country since the beginning of the pandemic.

The seven new deaths recorded on Wednesday bring the total number of fatalities in the country to 12,813; 95.2% of those who have passed away with Covid-19 were over the age of 70 or suffered from underlying health issues.