Greek minister claims an increase in ICU’s would result in ‘more deaths’

State Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis appeared in news headlines on Tuesday morning after making a controversial claim that an increase in supply of ICU beds would lead to more hospital deaths from COVID-19.

Speaking to state broadcaster ERT, Gerapetritis’ claims were made after it was found that 50 percent of Covid-19 patients in ICU do not survive.

“If we had 5,000 ICUs, this would mean in the normal course of events that we would have a much higher number of dead,” Gerapatritis said.

These seemingly outrageous claims have been compared with those of US President Donald Trump, who said earlier this year that the reason the US has the most cases is because they do the most testing.

Gerapatritis speaks following the death of a COVID-19 infectious man who was in need of an ICU, as there was no bed available in Trikala, and later died of cardiac arrest.

“Obviously we would like to have two, three and five thousand ICUs. But keep in mind that ICUs are not the solution, we must first take care of ourselves so that we do not have to resort to these Units,” Gerapatritis said.

“Assuming we had 5,000 ICUs this would mean we would have a much higher number of deaths. Because mortality in ICUs is halved.

“The aim is not to increase those who enter but to reduce the phenomenon by observing the measures and having as much social distance as possible.”