Greek hospital staff battle with the overwhelming amount of patients in the country, having recently reached 200 hospital admissions per day on a national level. The number of people on ventilators has risen by 67 percent, with ICU’s in Attica reaching an occupancy rate of 83 percent.
Committee member and infectious disease specialist, Gkikas Magiorkinis, said during a Health Ministry briefing that, according to preliminary data, additional restrictive measures in Attica have begun to show results.
Magiorkinis said a mild rise was expected in ICU admissions in the next two weeks. In Thessaloniki, infections are showing a stabilising trend, and hospitalisation rates are not expected to rise abruptly.
Effective on Saturday the region of Achaia in the northwest of the Peloponnese peninsula as well as Euboea, Greece’s second-largest island after Crete, will be in lockdown until Feb. 22 at least, authorities said. This means schools, hair salons and non-essential retail shops will close.
“The epidemiological picture countrywide shows a steady deterioration,” Vana Papaevangelou, a member of the committee of infectious disease experts advising the government, told a news briefing.
On Tuesday the government announced a full lockdown in metropolitan Athens to curb a resurgence in coronavirus cases and ease pressure on badly stretched health services.
“People should be doubly careful as there are COVID-19 variants in the community,” Papaevangelou said.
