Greece records highest daily number of COVID cases

By Magda Panoutsopoulou

ATHENS (AA) - Greece registered 5,449 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, its highest daily figure since the beginning of the pandemic, the National Public Health Organization said Monday.

The country has recorded 747,595 confirmed infections since the pandemic began.

The death toll is now up to 15,990, with 52 new fatalities in the past 24 hours.

A total of 430 patients are on ventilators while nearly 85% (364) of those patients are unvaccinated or partly vaccinated.

Only 66 patients currently on ventilators are fully vaccinated.

According to health officials, the median age of new infections is 39 years, while the median age of the deceased is 78.

The region of Attica, where the country’s capital is, has reported the highest number of cases with 1,021 with Thessaloniki, the country’s second largest city, coming in second with 828.

The increasing number of new daily cases in the past few days has placed health experts on high alert, especially in northern Greece, as hospital admissions are increasing rapidly, putting intensive care units (ICUs) under pressure.

Speaking on Skai TV on Sunday, the director of the Papanikolaou intensive care unit, Nikos Kapravelos, gave a negative prognosis concerning hospitals in northern Greece.

“We are in the middle of a difficult situation regarding the pandemic,” he said. “Either we will all be vaccinated together or we will experience tragedies.”