Update – 02/12/2021
December 2, 2021
Who we are
Action Digital is a full-service digital agency based in Cyprus offering services in web
As of the latest update by the Greek authorities, the total number of confirmed Covid-19 diagnosed cases in Greece 945,095. 75 new deaths were reported raising the total number to 18,234. The number of patients treated in intensive care units is currently 690. 6,196 new cases were announced yesterday in Greece. 1,845 of the new cases were found in the Attica region and 1,030 new cases in the Thessaloniki region.
Unvaccinated people will only be able to procure a certificate of recent recovery from Covid-19, required to enter any indoor recreation and entertainment areas, if they had taken a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, according to an expected advice from the National Vaccination Committee.
Current rules stipulate that the certificate can be issued with either a PCR or a rapid antigen test, which has created many loopholes in the system.
Recently, a pharmacist was arrested in the border region of Evros for supplying clients with forged certificates of recent recovery which he then registered in the National Organization for Public Health’s (EODY) online system.
The committee experts are also mulling shortening the validity of the certificate which currently stands at six months.
PCR tests are more expensive than rapid tests but more accurate in detecting Covid-19.
Greek lawmakers on Wednesday approved legislation making vaccination for COVID-19 mandatory for all residents aged over 60, to deal with an infection surge and the emergence of the omicron variant.
The draft law backed by the center-right government and a center-left opposition party — but rejected by all other opposition parties — targets the country’s age group that is most vulnerable to death or intubation from the coronavirus.
Some 17% of Greeks aged over 60 have not yet been vaccinated. They have until Jan. 16 to get their first jabs, or will be fined 100 euros ($113) for every month they remain unvaccinated.Parties that opposed the measure said it was too harsh on low-income people who don’t want to be inoculated.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he reluctantly proposed the measure due to “implacable” facts: Nine in 10 Greeks who die of COVID-19 are aged over 60; Seven in 10 intubated patients in intensive care units belong to the same age group, and more than eight in 10 of those have not been vaccinated.
Mitsotakis said during the debate that the 17% of unvaccinated people over 60 “is too big a percentage to ignore.”
“It is beyond doubt that these are the people who face the highest risk,” he said. “But it’s also they who, being unprotected, are besieging the public health system, depriving treatment from thousands of other people with very serious health issues.”
Last month the government tightened restrictions for the unvaccinated, mandating tests for all non-essential shops, services and venues, including outdoor cafes. Officials say that has spurred a vaccination surge – but not among those over 60.
Mitsotakis said almost 2 million vaccination appointments were made over the past three weeks. But out of the 580,000 unvaccinated people older than 60, only 70,000 made a first jab appointment.
“I don’t care whether the measure will cost me some extra votes in the elections,” Mitsotakis said. “I am convinced that we are doing the right thing and I am convinced that this policy will save lives.”
The mandatory vaccination will not apply to people who have recovered from COVID-19 in the past six months, or who have serious health issues — such as autism or epilepsy. The fines will be added to tax bills following cross-reference with state social security databases, and will be ploughed into the state national health system.
The country of nearly 11 million has so far registered more than 18,000 deaths and nearly 950,000 infections from the virus — none, so far, from the omicron variant. Roughly a quarter of the adult population remains unvaccinated.
The government has ruled out a new general lockdown. Greece imposed vaccination mandates over the summer for health care workers and fire service rescuers, with those failing to comply being suspended from their jobs indefinitely without pay.
Better late than never. That is, the decision by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to finally make vaccinations for all citizens over the age of 60 mandatory and to thus exert serious pressure on the 500,000 unvaccinated over-60s to fulfill their social obligation and also protect themselves.
This is a decision that should have been implemented months ago when the authorities responsible for vaccinations discovered that the age group in question had been routinely avoiding getting vaccinated. The government was avoiding the decision out of fear of the political ramifications, but also because mandates should be used sparingly in a state ruled by law.
The data over the last few weeks have made it clear that extraordinary times require extraordinary measures. The figures illustrated that some countries with populations similar to Greece in size had significantly fewer coronavirus-related deaths. This was primarily because they had a higher vaccination rate among the over-60s (over 95%) in comparison to Greece, where the vaccination rate of the over-60s hovered somewhere in the region of 80%.
This is why the government has abandoned the false narrative in which Greece is gradually returning to normalcy – a narrative that claimed that with 70% of the adult population being vaccinated and with approximately 1 million people having contracted the virus, the country was reaching the much-desired level of herd immunity.
Until recently the prime minister’s office had been resisting calls by epidemiologists to expand mandatory vaccinations to other social groups beyond just healthcare workers, thinking that “the tougher the government is and the more mandates it enforces, the more reaction it creates.”
Experience in other parts of the world, however, has proven that the opposite is true. United States President Joe Biden was among the first to extend compulsory vaccination to other areas apart from health workers. He announced a vaccine mandate for 3.5 million federal government workers, with the threat of suspension for noncompliance. Within just a few weeks, almost the entire body (95%+) of workers in this category had been inoculated.
So, better late than never. Let us hope that whatever decisions the government comes to will strengthen the wall of immunity in the community so it can face the winter and the possible march of the Omicron variant.
In more detail, the 6,196 new cases detected per Regional Unit:
