On the evening of January 3, local time, the Greek national public health organization announced that in the past 24 hours, Greece added 36,246 new cases of new coronavirus pneumonia patients, and the cumulative number of confirmed cases is 1294741. There were 78 new deaths on the same day, with a cumulative total of 20,990 deaths.
The issue of the opening of the school is still unresolved
Greek Health Minister Plessris said in an interview with the media on the 2nd that the health expert committee is expected to meet on Tuesday or Wednesday to discuss the opening of schools. He noted that the government's preferred plan is for schools to open on Jan. 10 and may update health protection agreements. He said changes to the new health protocol could involve more virus testing.
Pagani, president of the Doctors' Association of Athens and Piraeus (EINAP), said on the 3rd that schools should open on January 10 on the premise of formulating new health codes. She said that stopping face-to-face offline classes would do little to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Because the current dominant part of the Greek outbreak is the Omiljung variant, because of its extremely contagious nature, this strain can spread even in daily social activities due to lax people's protection. However, Pagani said that the number of new cases is expected to surge in the coming days.
However, many medical experts believe that schools should postpone opening, staggering the peak of the epidemic and the opening time of schools. Vatopoulos, a professor of microbiology, said the closure or opening of schools depends on the rate at which cases are increasing, but the presence of the highly contagious Omiljunn variant makes things more difficult to deal with. Zanakis, a professor of pulmonology at the University of Crete, has suggested that the school open on January 17 to reduce the impact of the holiday-affected fluctuations on the campus.
The daily increase in the number of people can reach 80,000
Sarriyanis, a professor of environmental engineering at aristotle University in Thessaloniki, said that according to mathematical models, the number of new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Greece will reach an average of 65,000 per day from January 19 to 22. He said the highest number of daily confirmed patients could reach or even exceed 80,000. The good news, though, is that after the peak of the outbreak, the number of cases is expected not to stabilize, but to decline vertically.
Mayor Kinis, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Athens, said that based on available data analysis, the current outbreak is likely to ease by January or the end of February. He said further observations were needed to see whether the surge in cases after the holidays would put more pressure on health systems. He advises people who socialize frequently to avoid contact with vulnerable groups and the elderly for the next two to three weeks.
Omikeron can infect the same person multiple times
Statistics show that Europe has reported more than 100 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 on January 1, accounting for more than one-third of all infections in the world. The problem of the spread of Omikeron has become the focus of the medical community. Jamarello, director of the Infectious Diseases Research Office at the Hygeia Hospital in Athens, warned that Omilon has led to a surge in confirmed COVID-19 cases in many European countries. But even more alarming is that this variant strain can re-infect the same patient four to five times.
"Omikron is five times more contagious than Delta, which doubles the number of cases every other day," she said. There is no other way to help alleviate this situation than protective measures. Common symptoms of infection with Omikejong are sore throats, headaches and runny noses, which can easily confuse people with cold symptoms. It should be noted that a person can be repeatedly infected by this strain four or five times. Therefore, vaccination has become a necessary protection. (Cai Ling)
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