About 900 patients with Covid-19 infection have been admitted to the country's hospitals in the last 48 hours, a "hard indicator" that could only hold back any positive recommendations for release measures by the experts on the Expert Committee at their weekly meeting yesterday.
Under the weight of the increase in coronavirus hospitalisations - it has reached 40% in the last three weeks - the scientists agreed that the lifting of measures would not happen until May Day, when the situation would be reviewed.
The epidemiological outbreak of the Omicron mutation, and to a large extent Omicron 2, known as the Stealth sub-variant, which is ongoing in the country, is causing tens of thousands of new infections every day - yesterday there were 22,451 cases. In fact, according to experts, the actual infections are much higher as, on the one hand, there are cases that are confirmed by self-test without being registered in the patient register since no rapid or molecular test is done and, on the other hand, what has been in force since the beginning of the pandemic is still in force, i.e. asymptomatic people do not know they are ill and are not registered.
However, this rate is not followed by serious cases of the disease requiring hospital admission, which have fluctuated at around 400-450 per day in the last week. The high number of cases remains disconnected from the "hard" epidemiological indicators, hospitalisations, intubations and deaths, as experts point out, which has also allowed the relaxation of restrictive measures to be launched.
It is indicative that more than 1.4 million infections have been recorded in March. During the same period, the sad list of victims of covid infection increased by 1,594 people in our country, the majority of them over the age of 70 and unvaccinated or with partial vaccination coverage.
The road to Easter
The main topic of the regular meeting of the Committee of Experts was the timetable for the de-escalation of the measures until the end of April, which took place yesterday afternoon. According to the plan notified last week by the government to the Committee, the measures ideally could be lifted in April and revisited next September, when an epidemic wave is considered almost certain to rise again.
Showing people's vaccination or disease certificates to enter places and activities was the first of the measures for which the government was calling for a relaxation, and before Easter. However, scientists yesterday shut down all discussion, keeping the vaccination certificate as a health passport for the next five weeks.
In the same way, scientists also drew a red line on the government's demand to phase out the use of protective masks as is the case in other countries, where entering and staying in enclosed spaces is allowed without a mask.
For most members of the Commission, maintaining the mask in enclosed spaces as at present is non-negotiable in this process of lifting measures, especially if the vaccination certificate becomes "invalid". Churches (topical in view of Easter), workplaces, supermarkets, pharmacies, all health care facilities, elderly care units, public transport, are considered places where people should only wear masks, primarily to protect themselves against the virus but also other vulnerable people around them who would be at risk if they were to become infected.
Finally, in May, the issue of widespread testing for coronavirus will be opened to citizens. It will be recalled that at a previous meeting the members of the Commission had recommended that students should be self-tested once a week instead of twice a week as was previously the case. Now the students and up to the break of their classes at Easter will undergo three tests for the equal number of school weeks. The same model is expected to continue after Easter until the end of the school year. However, it is planned to test only those who have symptoms of covid infection as well as vulnerable and elderly people.
Source: protothema.gr
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