Update – 08/04/2021
April 8, 2021
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As of the latest update by the Greek authorities, the total number of confirmed Covid-19 diagnosed cases in Greece is 285,015. 75 new deaths were reported raising the total number to 8,607. The number of patients treated in intensive care units is currently 749. 3,445 new cases were announced yesterday in Greece. 1,670 of the new cases were found in the Attica region and 398 new cases in the Thessaloniki region.
Greek authorities on Wednesday announced plans to reopen high schools for students in the final three grades starting April 12. Students and teachers returning to school will be required to use the kits for self-administered coronavirus tests, which begun arriving in Greek pharmacies Wednesday, twice weekly.
Education Minister Niki Kerameus told journalists on Wednesday that teachers ans students will have to wear masks indoors and outdoors, and that students will take breaks at different times to avoid overcrowding. Schools will be ventilated regularly and cleaned, while antiseptics will be provided in the premises. Authorities had already anmounced that piority for the home tests will initially be given to teachers and high school students aged 16-18.
Greece has been under lockdown-type restrictions since early November and schools have been shut for most of the time since then, although they briefly reopened for a few weeks earlier this year.
Only special education schools have remained open throughout.
Kits for self-administered coronavirus tests began arriving in Greek pharmacies Wednesday, with each resident entitled to one free of charge per week as part of efforts to tackle a surge of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. Priority for the home tests is initially being given to teachers and high school students aged 16-18, as authorities contemplate reopening schools, at least for certain grades. Greece’s committee of medical experts handling coronavirus issues was meeting Wednesday, and an announcement on whether and under what conditions schools will reopen was expected in the evening.
Alternate Health Minister Vassilis Kontozamanis said distribution of the tests to the population would begin on Thursday. The tests involve simple nasal swabs and are easily carried out without the need for a healthcare professional, he noted.
Addressing complaints reported by some pharmacists that the tests had arrived in packages of 25 instead of as individual kits, forcing pharmacists to repackage them for distribution, Kontozamanis said future shipments would be in individual packaging.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will not force health personnel to be vaccinated against the coronavirus right now, fearing tensions in hospitals. But he said he would be open to discussing the idea from September, when he hopes the acute phase of the pandemic will be over.
Asked, in an interview to TV channel Star, if he would like to do as the Italian government did and make vaccination for health personnel mandatory, or make them face sanctions, Mitsotakis said that “we must discuss (the issue) very seriously, at a neutral moment, I think, when there is not so much pressure on the helath system…at present, I do not want to create tension inside hospitals, but I must say that, from September, we must revisit the issue from a different perspective.”
A sizeable percentage of health personnel have expressed reluctance to being vaccinated, nurses and other auxiliary personnel more so than doctors. Representatives of health personnel unions have said that health personnel are revising their initial negative opinions and are asking for one more chance to take the jabs.
In more detail, the 3,445 new cases detected per Regional Unit:
