New coronavirus infections have shown a slight drop, Alternate Health Ministry Mina Gaga said at a regular briefing on Thursday, adding that the trend appears to be the result of rising vaccination rates.
Pediatrics infectious diseases professor and member of the pandemic committee Vana Papaevangelou said that the general trend nationally shows a drop of 14% in new infections in the past week, although it is slow. There are parts of Greece with a rise in infections, like Laconia in the Peloponnese, Lassithi on Crete and the Ionian Island of Lefkada.
Papaevangelou said that hospital admissions and intubations are dropping but the rates of those already on ventilators and those dying remain high. "We shall spend the holiday season under the shadow of Omicron," she said, referring to the new SARS-CoV-2 variant that is spreading at high rates but with mild so far symptoms. In Greece there are 14 cases of Omicron identified so far, she said, adding the certainty that there are a lot more cases not identified yet.
In terms of vaccinations, she said that one in two teenagers aged 15-17 are vaccinated, while that of younger children is "proceeding more satisfactorily than we expected".