The positivity of the coronavirus showed a decrease in the week from 12 to 18 February 2024 compared to last week according to the weekly update of EODY while increase presented the number cases of influenza.

At the same time, deaths from coronavirus decreased to 21 while tthere are four times the number of deaths from influenzavs eight in the previous recording.

Corona virus intubations also showed a decrease, just five, compared to the average weekly number of new intubations during the previous 4 weeks. 33 patients are intubated.

New arrivals due to covid-19 were 300, down 47% on the average weekly number of admissions over the previous 4 weeks and below the number of admissions in the corresponding week of 2023.

The same time, the number of cases of influenza per 1,000 visits presented small increase compared to the previous week.

Influenza positivity in the community remains above 10%, which is the seasonal threshold for epidemic influenza activity according to the ECDC).

In total, 121 people with laboratory-confirmed influenza have been hospitalized in ICU and 49 deaths have been recorded. The predominant influenza virus subtype is A(H1)pdm09 with percent.

Finally, there was an increase in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) positivity, both in the community and in hospitals.

Details in detail

Influenza-like illness – ILI (regardless of pathogen)

✓ The number of influenza cases per 1,000 visits showed a slight increase compared to the previous week. Severe Acute Respiratory Infection – SARI (regardless of pathogen)

✓ The number of SARI cases per 1,000 visits showed a slight decrease compared to the previous week. SARS-CoV2 virus – COVID-19 infection ✓ The positivity in all tested samples showed a decrease compared to the previous week.

✓ The number of admissions (n=300) showed a decrease of 47% compared to the average weekly number of admissions in the previous 4 weeks (n=568) and was lower than the number of admissions in the corresponding week of 2023 (n=951) ✓ The number of new intubations (n=5) showed a decrease compared to the average weekly number of new intubations over the previous 4 weeks (n=13) and was lower than the number of intubations in the corresponding week of 2023 (n=21).

✓ The number of patients with COVID-19 infection who are hospitalized with intubation is 33.

✓ 21 deaths were recorded with a median age of 81 years (range 60-98 years). The number of deaths showed a decrease compared to the average weekly number of deaths in the previous 4 weeks (n=59) and was lower than the number of deaths in the corresponding week in 2023 (n=101).

✓ In week 02, the most frequent sub-variant of BA.2 was JN.1 (79%) followed by EG.5 (11%).

✓ Surveillance of the viral load in municipal wastewater showed a reduction in the circulation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in all 9 areas tested. Influenza virus

✓ Influenza positivity in the community (sentinel network) remains above 10% (seasonal threshold for the onset of epidemic influenza activity according to ECDC) and showed a decrease compared to the previous week. The positivity of SARI samples showed a drop compared to the previous week.

✓ 3 new serious cases with hospitalization in ICU were recorded, while 4 new deaths from laboratory confirmed influenza were recorded.

✓ From week 40/2023 to week 07/2024, 121 people with laboratory-confirmed influenza were hospitalized in ICU and 49 deaths from laboratory-confirmed influenza were recorded.

✓ From week 40/2023 to week 07/2024, 458 influenza strains have been typed (derived from community Sentinel samples, from SARI surveillance samples and from hospital samples outside surveillance networks), of which 441 (96%) were type A and 17 (4%) type B.

✓ In total, 417 type A strains have been subtyped in the two Influenza Reference Centers. 387 (93%) belonged to the A(H1)pdm09 subtype and 30 (7%) to the A(H3) subtype. Respiratory syncytial virus – RSV

✓ RSV positivity showed an increase compared to the previous week, both in the community (PHC Sentinel network) and in hospitals (SARI surveillance network). NOTE: data may be modified by incorporating data declared retroactively