Athens.- ANA-MPA

Greece registered 795 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, of which 4 were identified at the country’s entry points, said the National Public Health Organization (EODY).

All cases in Greece total 156.473 of which 5.936 relate to travel from abroad and 48.939 to already confirmed infection cases.

A total of 257 individuals are intubated. Their median age is 69 years and 86.8 pct have an underlying condition or are aged 70 or more while 185 of them are men. Another 1.106 have been discharged from ICUs since the start of the pandemic.

EODY also registered 15 new deaths, bringing coronavirus fatalities to 5.779 in total. The median age of all fatalities was 79 years, 95.5 pct had an underlying condition and/or were aged 70 or above while 3.397 were men.

The rapid change in Attica region infections last week after three weeks of an improving set of data “is disturbing”, infectious diseases specialist Vana Papaevangelou said on Friday.

In a live briefing with ministers and another doctor, both of them members of the Health ministry’s coronavirus pandemic committee, she said that the rise in infections in Attica was observed “across the board in all neighborhoods, not just a single metropolitan sector or municipality of Attica.”

Numbers also rose, she said, in hospitalized patients in Attica, where plain Covid-19 beds are 43 percent full and ICUs devoted to the disease are 61 pct full.

This past week over 27,000 diagnostic tests were conducted per day, with a slight rise in positivity to 2.3 pct for the entire week, nationally.

Despite a slightly rising viral load in Western Attica and central Athens for the past three weeks, and a slight rise nationally, it was the last week’s sudden rise in all Attica regions that raised the alarm with authorities, she noted. In Attica, “compared to the previous week, we had an increase of new infections by 45 percent,” while active infections are estimated at around 2,800 in total in the region.

The rise in rolling average per week of infections in Attica rose from 4.8 pct per 100,000 people to 7.1 pct, she said.

“Obviously, our focus switched from Northern Greece to Attica,” she noted, “where, unfortunately, the epidemiological picture changed.”

According to the latest data compiled by the National Public Health Organization (EODY), people aged 65 and over account for 84.6% of deaths from the coronavirus, although they include only 17% of confirmed cases.

Most diagnoses concern 40-64-year-olds (41.6%), followed by the 18-39 age group (35.2%). Under-17s account for 6.2% of confirmed cases.

The average age of people diagnosed with the virus is 44. No under-18s have died of the virus as of Friday, and 18-39-year-olds account for just 0.8% of deaths.

ADONIS GEORGIADIS

In the region of Attica, you are not allowed to enter a store without an appointment, underlined on Saturday Development and Investments Minister Adonis Georgiadis to SKAI TV. He also pointed out that “the reason these measures were applied in red areas as Attica, were to stop the congestion on commercial streets.

He also said that the first week of the opening of the stores the market went very well and the turnover showed a 57 percent increase in comparison with the same period last year.

OPPOSITION REACTIONS

The government continues to handle citizens’ health and national economy “as though it is a power switch that can be turned on and off”, said SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance party in statement on Friday.

Criticizing the new restrictive measures in the retail sector announced on Friday evening, the main opposition party added that the government “is repeating the same mistakes” and urged for substantial support of businesses and workers.

The government “stubbornly refuses” to carry out mass free testing of citizens, reduce overcrowding in public transportation, and perform thorough health inspections at large working spaces, said Syriza.

“Businesses and workers should not be left to chance yet again”, the party noted.

Movement for Change (KINAL) spokesperson Pavlos Christidis on Saturday in interview with radio Alpha criticised the government stating that the catering and the retail are dying and the government pretends it is not listening.

Asked on the return of the click away measure, he said that his party has supported from the first moments the decisions of the experts and that’s what his party will do now.

Unfortunately, it is confirmed what KINAL leader Fofi Gennimata put on the table, namely the accordion lockdown scenario and this is something that dissolves both the economy and the peoples’ psychology that after a year of an unprecedented situation they are at their limits, financially and psychologically, said Christidis quoting a Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen & Merchants (GSEVEE) report.

The vaccination process started a few days ago in a climate of reassurance and extreme optimism that the government cultivated, stated Communist Party of Greece (KKE) General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoumbas on Friday.

As he said his party had warned from the beginning that this process will be long and should not become and alibi to avoid the shielding the public health system and the protection measures in workplaces, education and public transport.

“The course of the developments proved in a tragic way, KKE’s estimations and position. The big delays in deliveries, the commercial wars and the geopolitical competitions as well as the favourable treatment of the strong countries against the weaker proves οur point,” Koutsoumbas said.

It is confirmed that all these derive from the fact that the vaccines and the medicines are golden goods and their production, research and distribution subject to the profits and the competition of major groups and capitalist countries, he added.