A rapid increase in cases has been observed in recent days in Cyprus, with the possibility of tightening the measures being open.
Sigma LIVE hosted Dr. Leontios Kostrikis who spoke about the increase of cases but also about the Omicron mutation.
Introductory, Dr. Kostrikis said, “I understand that people are particularly concerned about the increased number of cases and the increase in the percentage of positivity. “I think we need to be cool. In the first place, the increase in infections was something we expected to say two weeks ago when the Omicron variant first appeared.”
He went on to say that “a complete replacement of Omicron is expected at the moment. One and a half months ago, an important program was launched, which checks 100 to 200 samples per week from the community and from the airport and sends a weekly report to the Ministry of Health. The report on December 19 showed that Omicron infections in Cyprus were at 31% but doubled every 3-4 days. I now estimate it to be around 60%. “From the last 4 reports it seems that the morbidity of this virus is about 70% less than Delta”, said Dr. Kostrikis.
He explained that this means that people can be infected but have extremely mild or no symptoms.
“The most important thing is that this particular strain infects cells of the upper respiratory system and not the lower, that is, not the lungs. “So, it does not cause pneumonia but it creates symptoms like runny nose and these are extremely new,” he said.
He later said: “I expect to see more cases, we can reach 1500 and more until the peak of the wave but there does not seem to be an increase in flows in hospitals. Reduced morbidity of the virus is of great importance. “This week we expect a big increase in cases but what we do not know yet is about the hospitalizations, we hope that there will be no increase in the hospitalizations”.
Closing and talking about vaccines, he said “even with the third dose there is a case of Omicron disease, because vaccines were not created to prevent the disease but to protect you during the progression of the disease.”
SIGMALIVE
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