Decrease in flu cases – Increase in virus cases – Which variants of Covid have prevailed in Greece
The weekly report on respiratory diseases was published on Thursday by the EODY.
The coronavirus remains at the top of the news, as another 65 people have died in the last week, while 75 patients remain intubated with complications of the disease.
The details of the EODY report in more detail:
Influenza syndromes (regardless of pathogen)
✓ there was an increase compared to the previous week in the community
✓ an increase was recorded in the age groups 5-14, 15-64, 65+
SARS-CoV2 virus – COVID-19 infection
✓ the positivity in all the tested samples showed a decrease compared to the previous week
✓ the number of admissions for COVID-19 showed a decrease compared to the previous week and a 20% decrease compared to the average weekly number of new admissions over the previous 4 weeks
✓ the number of new intubations showed a decrease compared to the previous week and a 41% decrease compared to the average weekly number of new intubations over the previous 4 weeks
✓ the number of patients with COVID-19 infection who are hospitalized with intubation is 75
✓ 65 deaths were recorded with a median age of 84 years (range 53-96 years)
✓ in recent weeks all sequenced strains belonged to Omicron sub-variants BA.2 and BA.5, with BA.2 predominating from week 9 onwards
✓ at week 10 the sub-variant BQ.1.1 was the most frequent sub-variant of BA.5 (70%)
✓ at week 10 the most frequent sub-variant of BA.2 was XBB.1.5 (63%), followed by sub-variant CH.1.1 (23%) and sub-variant BA.2.75 (9%)
✓ surveillance of viral load in municipal wastewater showed increased circulation of SARSCoV2 virus in 5 out of 10 areas tested
Influenza virus
✓ positivity for influenza in the community showed a decrease in sentinel samples
✓ no new serious case of laboratory-confirmed influenza with hospitalization in ICU was recorded, while no new death from laboratory-confirmed influenza was reported
✓ from week 40/2022 to week 12/2023, 65 people with flu were hospitalized in ICU and 22 deaths were recorded
✓ during the same period, 321 samples positive for influenza viruses (sentinel samples and hospital samples) were recorded in the two influenza reference centers, of which 282 (88%) were type A strains and 39 (12%) type B strains
✓ of the 280 type A strains subtyped, 257 (92%) were classified to subtype A(H3N2) and 23 (8%) to subtype A(H1N1)pdm09
✓ during the last weeks, there has been an increase in the type B influenza virus
Respiratory syncytial virus – RSV
✓ positivity remained at the same low levels
New arrivals of COVID-19
The total of new patient admissions to the territory’s hospitals for COVID-19 in the week of 12/2023 was 691. This was a 20% decrease from the average weekly number of new admissions over the previous 4 weeks (weekly average, weeks 08/2023- 11/2023: 868).
New COVID-19 intubations
The number of new COVID-19 intubations in the week of 12/2023 was 16. This was a 41% decrease compared to the average weekly number of new intubations over the previous 4 weeks (weekly average number, weeks 08/2023-11/2023: 27) .
The median age of patients was 77 years (range: 50-93), while 99% had an underlying disease and/or age 70 years or older.
Surveillance of influenza deaths
In the week of 12/2023, no new death from laboratory-confirmed influenza was recorded.
From week 40/2022 to week 12/2023, 22 deaths of patients with laboratory-confirmed influenza have been recorded.
They are 13 men and 9 women (age range: 41-90 years, median age: 71 years).
Influenza type A virus was detected in all cases. The 5 strains of influenza type A isolated from the aforementioned cases
were subtyped and of these 1 (20%) belonged to subtype A (H1N1)pdm09 and 4 (80%) to subtype A(H3N2).
Samples positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus
From weeks 09-10 of 2022, when the Omicron strain completely prevailed, until weeks 11-12 of 2023, a total of 20,579 strains were genomically analyzed. The data presented refer to samples with a date of receipt up to 15/03/2023.
✓ In recent weeks all sequenced strains belonged to Omicron subvariants BA.2 and BA.5, with BA.2 predominating from week 9 onwards.
✓ At week 10 the sub-variant BQ.1.1 was the most frequent sub-variant of BA.5 (70%).
✓ At week 10 the most frequent BA.2 sub-variant was XBB.1.5 (63%), followed by CH.1.1 sub-variant (23%) and BA.2.75 sub-variant (9%).
NATIONAL WASTEWATER EPIDEMIOLOGY NETWORK
In the week of 12/2023, increasing trends were observed compared to the week of 11/2023 in the average weekly viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in urban wastewater in five of the ten (5/10) areas of the National Wastewater Epidemiology Network (EDEL) , downward trends in three of the
ten (3/10) areas of the EDL, and stabilizing trends in two of the ten (2/10) areas of the EDL.
Net upward trends in the average weekly viral load of municipal wastewater were observed in Heraklion (-46%), Attica (+72%) and Volos (+75%), while the increase observed in Alexandroupolis (+13%) was marginal. and in Xanthi (+24%).
Net downward trends were observed in Larissa (-39%) and Chania (-32%), while a marginal decrease in the average weekly viral load of municipal wastewater was observed in Ioannina (-22%).
Stabilization in the average weekly viral load of municipal wastewater was observed in Patras (+9%) and Thessaloniki (-3%).
Source :Skai
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