Update – 25/01/2021
January 25, 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 is 151,980. 24 new deaths were reported raising the total number to 5,646. The number of patients treated in intensive care units is currently 288. 334 new cases were announced yesterday in Greece. 162 of the new cases were found in the Attica region and 26 new cases in the Thessaloniki region.
Greek high schools will reopen on February 1, according to information presented at a live-televised briefing presented by Deputy Minister of Civil Protection and Crisis Management Nikos Hardalias and Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and member of the Committee of Experts, Gikas Majorkinis on Friday. The only exception to this ruling will be those high schools located in the “red” areas of the nation with the highest coronavirus infection rates, stated Professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and member of the Committee of Experts, Vana Papaevangou. Niki Kerameus, the Greek Minister of Education, who was also present at the briefing, stated that she believed Greek students could indeed return to schools in a safe manner.
Following a recommendation issued by the Committee of Infectious Diseases, the Ministry of Education decided to restart the operation of secondary schools on Monday, February 1. “The pandemic does not stop Education,” Minister Kerameus stated at the briefing. “Today, we move on to the next step, the opening of high schools and lyceums. “A step that students, teachers, parents, educators expect. Everyone is looking forward to getting back to school and stressing the importance of going back to class. And for the government, the reopening of schools for life has been a priority from the first moment.
“Today we are turning another page together. We return to the desks observing the measures, we learn safely,” the minister stated firmly.
All other educational institutions, including universities, “Second Chance Schools,” Vocational Training Institutes, tutoring centers, language centers, and Lifelong Learning Centers, will only be allowed to conduct distance education at present.
AstraZeneca’s vaccine delivery is falling short, in the EU. Delays are raising worries, while legal action against the company is under way, in some countries.
On Sunday, Greece approved colchicine, an inexpensive medicine for heart diseases, to be included in the protocol of oral treatments for patients with Covid-19. The committee of experts of the health ministry gave the “green light” after the positive results of a large Canadian study in which Greece participated.
The study showed that the administration of colchicine to Covid-19 patients “reduced mortality by 44%, hospitalization by 25% and the need for intubation by 50%,” professor of cardiology Spyros Deftereos, who coordinated the study in Greece told Athens-Macedonia News Agency (AMNA).
The committee decided to include the drug colchicine for use in patients outside the hospital. However, the administration will be done after a doctor’s prescription in certain categories of patients with a positive coronavirus molecular test. These are all patients over the age of 60 who have a positive molecular test regardless of whether or not they have underlying diseases. Also for patients 18 to 60 years with at least one underlying disease or fever over 38 for at least 48 hours.
Prime Minister Mitsotakis stressed the need to speed up the European Union’s vaccine approval process in an European Council videoconference on the EU’s strategy for dealing with the pandemic late on Thursday. According to government sources, the Prime Minister, together with Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Denmark’s Prime Minister Merte Frederiksen, said it was essential to speed up the licensing of vaccines that are in the final stage of evaluation by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) — such as that developed by Oxford University, in collaboration with AstraZeneca.
Mitsotakis also noted that Europe must henceforth ensure that it takes the lead in developments on the licensing front, the sources said, especially with regard to the approval of vaccines that require a single dose or which do not require ultra-cold storage, which could transform the roll-out of national vaccination campaigns. He clarified that the three EU leaders’ initiative does not seek to exert political pressure on the EMA but to bypass time-consuming bureaucratic procedures, which delay decisions which are already based on sound scientific criteria.
In more detail, the 334 new cases detected per Regional Unit:
