Update – 23/08/2021
August 23, 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 559,186. 33 new deaths were reported raising the total number to 13,384. The number of patients treated in intensive care units is currently 318. 1,948 new cases were announced yesterday in Greece. 444 of the new cases were found in the Attica region and 191 new cases in the Thessaloniki region.
With the Delta variant of the coronavirus accounting for up to 85% of new cases, children appear to be playing a strong role in transmissions, prompting scientists to make a last-ditch appeal to unvaccinated parents to get their jabs “now, before schools open.”
The sense of urgency is driven by the rapid proliferation of the Delta variant, which in mid-June only accounted for 5% of cases.
“We’ve seen it happen with the British variant, we see it happening more intensely now: Both children and adolescents are now transmitting the virus much more ‘efficiently’ than in the early stages of the pandemic,” said the director of the Microbiology Laboratory at Athens University, Athanasios Tsakris, adding that the main differences in the Delta variant from previous manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 are its high transmissibility and its ability to evade, to some extent, antibodies which would have targeted previous variants.“Comparative studies of individuals of the same age and with underlying conditions who had not been vaccinated and became ill during previous waves of the pandemic and the current one show that in this wave, which is characterized by the predominance of Delta, the infections are more serious and the need for hospitalization as well as for mechanical breathing support is greater,” he said.
“An unvaccinated person is at greater risk today than they would have been six months or a year ago and, as a result, we are seeing more serious infections in younger adults as well,” he explained to Kathimerini.
He also noted that another dimension of the fourth wave of the pandemic is the significant drop in asymptomatic cases.Government sources reiterated on Saturday that economic activity and social life will not be suspended again in the autumn.
This essentially means that as the weather cools and becomes wetter, the unvaccinated will not be able to enter the interiors of entertainment venues (indoor restaurants, cafes, bars, theaters and cinemas, as well as sport stadiums) as opposed to the inoculated, who will be able to do so simply by displaying the relevant digital certificate and identity documents.
In comments to Skai TV on Saturday, government spokesman Yiannis Oikonomou said the relevant announcements are expected on Tuesday.
“I think on Tuesday the framework governing the pandemic and the functioning of the economy and society will be announced,” he said.
Oikonomou also stressed that “we are not done with the pandemic, it is persistent and is not backing down, contrary to the stubbornness of those who interpret things in their own way.”
“Either these people will be vaccinated, or they will get sick, endangering society in its entirety, including those who are already vaccinated, and that is unfair,” he said.
“We do not count votes with the numbers of vaccinations, we count human lives,” Oikonomou noted.
In more detail, the 1,948 new cases detected per Regional Unit:
