The festive atmosphere is being blown up[/b] by the spike in cases of coronavirus in Greece, which yesterday exceeded 21 within 24 hours.000, "ringing the alarm bell" for the spread of Omicron and accelerating the implementation of the measures announced on Monday, which were to be implemented from 3 January 2022.
Today at noon the expert committee of the Ministry of Health meets again to assess the epidemiological situation and if it deems it can recommend an earlier implementation of the restrictive measures, while at 9:30 a.m. a meeting will be held under the Prime Minister with Health Minister Thanos Plevris and Professor Sotiris Tsiodras.
In any case, all indications are that... we will have a New Year's Eve with closed restaurants after midnight, since the epidemiological situation in our country leaves no room for improvement.
In fact, it is announced that the restrictions on restaurants and entertainment will be tighter than those announced.
Both government spokesman, Yannis Economou, and Health Minister Thanos Plevris, speaking to MEGA, left open the possibility of implementing the measures before the New Year, with the station's information putting the start of implementation at 6am on Thursday.
Tighter restrictions on restaurants and entertainment
According to Mr. Economou, the restrictions on restaurants and entertainment will be tighter than what has already been announced.
"We had taken measures and that's how we saved Christmas and got to this point. When the facts change it would be a disastrous mistake not to adjust our tactics to the new facts...The developments force us to adjust our strategy and the measures will come sooner," he said, stressing that they have stuck to the basic strategic choices because there is a plan, not because of luck.
He clarified that the committee will recommend that the measures be postponed earlier than tomorrow or the day after tomorrow and that there will be clear clear recommendations and guidelines for New Year's Eve celebrations and gatherings in homes as well as for dining and entertainment.
Increase in cases by 370% in Attica
The Health Minister told MEGA that with the prevalence of "omicron" we expected an increase in cases, but not so immediately, but it is not something that "takes us by surprise, but it is something that worries us". He added that with the prevalence of "omicron", we will see large numbers of cases and cited as an example the 370% increase recorded in Attica.
Referring to the health system, he said that the optimistic thing is that despite the increase in cases, the health system is not under more pressure.
The problem, however, Plevris said, is that the fourth wave of the "delta" mutation has not had time to decompress in the NHS. He noted that the system was currently managing incidents of "delta" and there was concern that incidents, however mild, of "omicron" would be added. We want, the minister said, to have a strengthened NHS and announced that an agreement has been reached with all private facilities that will manage covid cases, or staff their NHS units with doctors. "
So we believe that Athens, which is currently at the heart of the 'omicron' will be fully secured at the level of hospitalization."
Finally, he said that at the moment there are no thoughts of changing the framework for opening schools.
According to MEGA's information, the new measures announced on Monday by Health Minister Thanos Plevris will come into effect on Thursday at 06:00 and not on January 3, as originally announced.
The scenario that is now on the table and is expected to be confirmed at tomorrow's meeting of our country's epidemiologists is that the measures announced on Monday will come into effect this Thursday at 06:00.
This means that for the second year in a row we will... change time in our homes, as restaurants and nightclubs will be closed.
In fact, the most popular scenario for New Year's Eve is for restaurants to close from 22:00, as there is no reason for shops to stay open until midnight, since this is the time when people go out on this particular day for the New Year's Eve celebrations.
The measures
Mandatory use of high respiratory protection masks or double masks in supermarkets, transport and catering staff and wherever it is crowded.
Hours of operation until 12 midnight, up to 6 people per table and no standing in entertainment and catering.
In stadiums: Limit of 10%, with a maximum of 1,000 people. If the measures are not complied with, all matches will be played behind closed doors.
In nursing homes and hospitals, visitation by PCR only.
Telecommuting in the private and public sector up to 50% and rolling hours, depending on the capacity of each service.
Pavlakis: "Measures should have been taken in the autumn"
Doctor-researcher George Pavlakis spoke to MEGA's Live News and Nikos Evangelatos about the course of the pandemic, the predictions for the Omicron mutation and the measures.
As Pavlakis stressed, fully vaccinated citizens are not at all protected against Omicron mutation disease, however, he added, they are quite protected for severe disease if they have had the third dose recently.
"We still don't know much about the Omicron mutation, because in South Africa the conditions are completely different, and the UK is not an example for Greece," he clarified.
"Both Omicron and Delta - which is responsible for the daily deaths in Greece - are not stopped by anything except stopping contacts," Mr. Pavlakis, stressing that there is a "tsunami of cases" in our country.
Speaking about the measures announced by the government to contain the pandemic, Pavlakis said that the "wisdom of experts" should prevail.
"The task of Greece and its rulers was to avoid the fate of Portugal last year, when they had a 'free Christmas' and then had a tsunami of cases," he said.
"After two years of a pandemic, we should not make the known mistakes and only make new ones," the doctor-researcher noted, stressing that measures should be taken from the autumn.
"We are not ignoring the virus, because we could be destroyed. We cannot say that the pandemic in Greece is under any control," said George Pavlakis, stressing that it is not right to say that the Omicron variant is better, because it also "gives" dead.
Source: in.gr
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