Update – 09/12/2021
December 9, 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 984,301. 81 new deaths were reported raising the total number to 18,901. The number of patients treated in intensive care units is currently 709. 5,899 new cases were announced yesterday in Greece. 1,783 of the new cases were found in the Attica region and 935 new cases in the Thessaloniki region.
Greece’s Health Ministry submitted an amendment on Thursday which reduces the validity of disease certificates against Covid-19 to three months from the current six, following a recommendation of the committee of experts.
Based on the decision, all disease certificates issued until October 30, 2021 will expire on January 31, 2022 and all others thereafter should do so after three months.
The only people excempt are those with proven health reasons that prevent them from getting the jab.
Greek Health Minister Thanos Plevris on Wednesday rejected as “fake news” reports that ICU beds were being reserved for selective admission of “VIP” patients, such as politicians and high ranking bishops, saying that these rumors “offend doctors.”
“Regarding the complaints that there is selective admission of patients to ICUs, it should be clarified that the patients who need an ICU are declared by doctors on the relevant platform…All hospitals that have empty ICU beds see the requests and, based on medical criteria, they accept the patient into the empty ICU bed that they have following a decision made by doctors,” he said.
“Those who circulate fake news operate as slanderers and are accountable to the doctors, whom they insult”.
Plevris was responding to Michalis Giannakos, the president of the national federation of Greek hospital workers (POEDIN), who told Skai TV earlier on Wednesday that there are currently 47 vacant ICU beds in Greece, while there are a total of 114 patients on waiting lists. Asked if he believed some hospitals keep those beds empty for possible “VIP” patients, he said, “Yes.”
BioNTech and Pfizer said on Wednesday a three-shot course of their Covid-19 vaccine was able to neutralize the new Omicron variant in a laboratory test and they could deliver an Omicron-based vaccine in March 2022 if needed.
In the first official statement from vaccine manufacturers on the likely efficacy of their shot against Omicron, BioNTech and Pfizer said that two vaccine doses resulted in significantly lower neutralizing antibodies but that a third dose of their vaccine increased the neutralizing antibodies by a factor of 25.
Blood obtained from people that had their third booster shot a month ago neutralized the Omicron variant about as effectively as blood after two doses fought off the original virus first found in China. “Ensuring as many people as possible are fully vaccinated with the first two dose series and a booster remains the best course of action to prevent the spread of Covid-19,” Pfizer boss Albert Bourla said in the statement.
The findings are broadly in line with a preliminary study published by researchers at the Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa on Tuesday, saying that Omicron can partially evade protection from two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, suggesting also that a third shot might help fend off infection.
A lab analysis at the university hospital of Frankfurt, Germany, however found a reduced antibody response to Omicron even after three shots.
In more detail, the 5,899 new cases detected per Regional Unit:
