Update – 30/11/2021
November 30, 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 931,183. 104 new deaths were reported raising the total number to 18,067. The number of patients treated in intensive care units is currently 657. 6,677 new cases were announced yesterday in Greece. 1,679 of the new cases were found in the Attica region and 1,135 new cases in the Thessaloniki region.
As the World Health Organization warned on Monday of the high risk posed globally by the Omicron variant, Greek health authorities insisted that despite the possible impact on their efficacy, vaccines remain the best defense.
“Vaccination, despite the possible reduction in effectiveness [due to the Omicron mutation], is still a shield of protection,” stressed the president of the National Vaccination Committee, Maria Theodoridou.
“There is a growing fear that vaccines may be ineffective,” she said, noting that according to the WHO, infections are also expected among vaccinated people, but “the magnitude of the problem is expected to be small,” she said.
“We are experiencing a situation that was expected and can be addressed with the supply of vaccines in countries with low vaccination coverage,” she said, adding that the difference with Omicron “is the large number of mutations that appear in the gene of the spike protein, which the virus uses to invade the body.”
“It is not known at this stage how contagious the virus is but it is possible that it is more contagious,” she noted, while clarifying that it is still not known if this new variant causes a more serious disease.
The symptoms of the new Omicron variant of Covid are mild but the cases also include young people in South Africa, National Vaccination Committee chair Maria Theodoridou said on Monday.
At a regular briefing on the pandemic, Theodoridou said that while data on Omicron is still in its early stages, “it appears that cellular immunity – that is, memory cells – shields from most variants.”
She underlined the importance of vaccination, adding that the committee will soon decide on whether to approve vaccination with Pfizer for children aged 5 to 11 years of age. The dosage for children is a third of that for adults and these vaccines are expected to arrive in Greece after December 20.
Speaking at the same briefing, Marios Themistokleous, secretary-general for Primary Health Care in the Health Ministry, said that as of December people will be able to get vaccinated on Sundays. There will be no vaccinations on December 25-26 or on New Year’s Day.
In terms of vaccination rates, Themistokleous said that a total of 7 million first-dose vaccinations have been administered, covering 79.2% of the adult population or 67% of the general population.
The Greek government repeated on Monday it has no plans for another lockdown amid anxiety over the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
Government spokesman Ioannis Oikonomou told a press briefing that any new measures to restrict the spread of the coronavirus will only concern the country’s unvaccinated population.
In any case, he said that understanding of the variant is developing and in around two weeks’ time the scientists will know more.
Oikonomou said that government measures introduced so far are designed to protect social and economic activity amid the pandemic and dismissed speculation of another nationwide lockdown.
“We will not impose a lockdown. We are doing everything possible to contain the spread of the pandemic, to ramp up the National Health Service (ESY) and accelerate the vaccination pace,” he said.
In comments made earlier on Monday, Development Minister Adonis Georgiadis played down concerns about the new mutation, adding that shutting down retail activity during the holiday season is “out of the question.”
In more detail, the 6,677 new cases detected per Regional Unit:
