A special and real danger that exists and has to do with the genetic predisposition to serious disease and death from Covid-19 at a younger age, was mentioned, during the briefing on the course of the pandemic, the assistant professor of Epidemiology and member of the committee of experts, Gikas Majorkinis, emphasizing that there is clear evidence for genetic predisposition.
This means, said Mr. Majorkinis, that when the virus infects families that have this predisposition then the chance of many members of the same family ending up is significant. And unfortunately there are such examples. “Vaccination can prevent these family tragedies,” he said.
He then referred to two determinants of the course of the pandemic. The percentage of vaccinated adults, and especially the percentage of those vaccinated over the age of 60, plays an important role in the stress of health systems and in mortality. On the other hand, a determining factor in the number of cases is the percentage of those vaccinated at productive and socially active ages, ie less than 60 years. “These are two critical masses of the immune wall that have a different role in the indicators of the pandemic at the moment. The young have the main role in the spread, while the older ones in the pressure in the health system. These two masses are not independent, one “We can not hope that the pressure on the health system will decrease if the vaccination rate does not increase significantly at the age of more than 60 years”, underlined Mr. Majorkinis. He added that “their vaccination will be a legacy not only for this wave of the epidemic, but also in the upcoming phase of endemicity, which we expect by the end of next year.” Mr. Majorkinis stressed that those countries that do not reach a high rate of vaccination over the age of 60, will continue to have high rates of morbidity and mortality for a long time.
Course of the pandemic in Greece
The total number of new diagnoses in the territory shows a slight deterioration, said Mr. Majorkinis, adding that it is “close to the level of flattening”, but “it will take another 2 weeks to have safe conclusions”. Specifically, 5% more diagnoses were recorded in the last week. The number of deaths showed a deterioration with an increase of 16%. The pressure on the health system remains high, with mild deteriorating tendencies, the professor said.
The number of people monitored in the Intensive Care Units showed a large increase of 8% while the number of new admissions with Covid is very enhanced, reaching even 600 some days, while the ticket-discharge balance is close to 1.4 .
The course of the pandemic worldwide
To date, more than 260 million infections and more than 5.2 million deaths from Covid-19 have been reported worldwide. New diagnoses have increased by 11% in the last week and about 552,000 diagnoses per day have been recorded. The death rate increased by 2% and about 7,200 deaths per day were recorded.
In Europe the epidemic continues to worsen for the ninth week. More specifically, the rate of new diagnoses increased by 16% and the rate of deaths increased by 2%. 2.4 million diagnoses and 27,000 deaths were recorded in the last week. Compared to the previous week, the picture shows signs of flattening of the epidemic. Of the 47 European countries, 27 showed a worsening of the epidemiological situation, ie 6 less than last week.
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