Minister of State – Nearly 7,000 students with covid 19 have been identified to date

To the question, where is the pandemic today, the Minister of State Akis Skertsos answers in a post on Facebook: “From 15/8 to last week there was a drop of 43% in the cases of COVID-19 in the territory. From about 22,200 per week they were reduced to 12,800 cases.

At the same time, laboratory tests performed in the territory quadrupled from about 400,000 to 1.6 million per week, due to the obligation to perform 1-2 laboratory tests on unvaccinated public and private sector workers – and most importantly, the positiveness index in the territory decreased from 3 , 5-4% to 0.93% “.

In other words, the Minister of State continues, “that is, by performing 4 times more laboratory tests, almost half of the cases are detected and at the same time we have a much more representative epidemiological picture of the circulation of the virus in the general population.”

At the same time, “since the beginning of the new school year, almost 10 million self-tests have been made available to all students through pharmacies and thanks to them, almost 7,000 students with COVID have been identified to date.

The differences from the 3rd wave

The result of the early diagnosis offered by the self tests is the smooth operation of lifelong learning, as the operation has been temporarily suspended in only 5 school departments across the country until today in a total of almost 90,000. In fact, it is characteristic that in August, when the schools were not open and so many tests were not performed, the cases of minors were over 5,000 per week, while now they range from 3,000 to 4,000,” notes A. Skertsos and adds: “More than 70% of adults has been vaccinated and an additional 10% have become ill. Single bed and ICU hospitalizations and COVID-19 deaths are 2 to 3 times below the 3rd wave of spring when the majority of the population was unvaccinated. Of the ICU patients, 9 out of 10 are consistently unvaccinated. “Unfortunately, some 600,000 people over the age of 60 who are most vulnerable to serious illness remain unvaccinated and that is where vaccination efforts are focused, especially in regions with lower immunity rates.”

We have entered a phase of significant normalization

Given this, “the conclusion of the above data is that thanks to the vaccine and the increased surveillance due to the many tests we have now entered a phase of significant normalization of the effects of the pandemic on the one hand to the general vaccinated population and on the other hand to the economy, education and the health system.

We are stepping up our efforts to persuade as many of our fellow citizens – and especially the most vulnerable – to be vaccinated and to live with the virus without the risk of restrictive measures leading to paralysis in important areas of social and economic life. This is how we will continue,” the Minister of State points out.