Why does Greece record 80-90 deaths from coronavirus every day?

The Minister of State, Akis Skertsos, reports on the war with the coronavirus, from the first moment that it affected our country as well, in an article in the newspaper “Kathimerini tis Kyriakis”. An article that answers, in addition, key questions today, such as why such a high number of our dead fellow citizens is recorded. In conclusion, plan b to deal with outbreaks and deaths is the same as plan a and this is nothing more than a vaccine.

The article that is part of A. Skertsou, who recently did at the Athens Health Summit organized by “Kathimerini”, starts from the reminder that our country “at the beginning of 2020 was just coming out of a 10-year economic, social and political crisis”, a crisis that “before 6 “Our years have almost reached the exit from the EU, we have been deeply divided, we have dealt a severe blow to the public health system due to the big cuts and we have lost confidence in the state and the institutions as a whole”, which is why “the pandemic was and is a huge challenge”. adds the Minister of State, who points out:

“It simply came to our notice then. However, this did not happen as the government’s strategy has managed to maintain the goal: protection of public health with a parallel economic recovery. For a country that was notorious for bureaucracy, we performed better overall than the European average in both areas. And this is a collective conquest of all of us “, he also underlines.

And then he emphasizes that “we completely avoided the 1st wave with very fast reflexes, strengthened the public health system with resources, staffing and infrastructure, installed the first digital vaccination system with one of the most organized programs in the world and carried out a small digital revolution in state with accelerator and pandemic. “We were the first to adopt the free self-test available to the entire population and in combination with a wide network of rapid tests in diagnostic centers and pharmacies, we managed to do the most covid tests in Europe”.

“We have designed and implemented a bold and targeted package of support for the economy, employment and business, leading the economy to the 3rd fastest recovery in Europe, achieving two successful and safe health tourism seasons in 2020 and 2021 amid a pandemic and leading unemployment to a 11-year low “, the Minister of State notes in his government report in both the health and the financial sector.

Referring specifically to the vaccination program, he writes that “thanks to the vaccination of a significant part of our population – 3 out of 4 adults have chosen to get the vaccine – we have managed to leave behind most universal restrictions on public life. At this stage we have repeatedly said that horizontal restrictions will not return because it is simply ineffective medically “, he clarifies with the simultaneous reminder that” with lockdown but without vaccine in the third wave we had more pressure on the health system “.

Coming to today’s news and “with the 4th wave of the pandemic being in progress and affecting the unvaccinated in our country and in the rest of Europe, we continue to have fewer losses than the European average. Greece ranks 16th in the EU in pandemic deaths. We are all deeply saddened by the issue of day-to-day deaths – mainly because they could have been largely avoided as they concern the vast majority of unvaccinated citizens – and we have researched it in detail. But why, the deaths from COVID in our country are now approaching 80-90 per day, many wonder “, is a question that the Minister of State asks in his article, giving at the same time the answer:

“This happens for three reasons: a) We have the second oldest population in Europe as a percentage of the general population, 28% of our population is over 60 years old. b) At the same time, 17% of Greeks over the age of 60 have not yet been vaccinated. c) And thirdly, as we know, coronavirus is a disease that affects young people but much more the elderly. Nine out of 10 deaths involve people over the age of 60 with underlying diseases. “Therefore, it is expected that in a country with the second highest percentage of older people in the general population, where almost 1/5 of them have not been vaccinated, there will be an outbreak of the pandemic at this stage,” he explained.

He considers it important, as he states, that “in the European general mortality rate that compares deaths in each country – regardless of cause – per week with previous years, Greece shows zero or low excessive mortality throughout the pandemic as “and during the autumn of 2021. The same is not the case in other EU countries, such as Germany, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, which show much worse data on excessive mortality even now.”

A statement which he interprets with the “technical but not insignificant detail” in the way we record the losses from Covid in our country, that is, “we have chosen as a country to make perhaps the most expansive interpretation in the EU in terms of recording the deaths by or with Covid following the instructions of the WHO “(s.s .: World Health Organization). This means that in other countries e.g. Patients with Covid disease who died 15 or 29 days after illness are not recorded as covid deaths but as deaths from other causes. In Greece, all patients who have undergone Covid and ended up in hospital are registered as Covid deaths because we strictly follow the WHO methodology. That is, if we followed, e.g. “According to the UK’s internal classification methodology, we would record 20% fewer Covid deaths, although this does not affect the overall annual mortality.”

The Minister of State also states that he insists on this element because, as he argues, “the total excess or non-mortality in each country will be the indicator that will judge the overall management of the pandemic, regardless of the deaths declared as Covid deaths as each country we see that it applies a different methodology “.

Last question, whether “is there therefore or is there no plan b to deal with the outbreak of cases and deaths?”. A. Skertsos’ answer is as follows: “Plan b is the same as plan a. Plan b is the vaccine. Half a million people chose to take the first dose in the last month and more than 1.5 million of those fully vaccinated (65%) have already taken the third dose. In other words, there is no hard dividing line in society as some people want to show. “Every day thousands of citizens choose, despite their possible hesitations, to get the vaccine and this is very promising,” he concludes.

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