Hundreds of people line up for Covid tests

The third and fourth day of the new 2022, hundreds of thousands of Greek residents spent in long lines at pharmacies, private diagnostic centers and government agencies to take a Covid test.

The average waiting time outside private establishments is 60 minutes, while in public places it can take several hours.

Some want to know if they “survived” holiday gatherings and parties without contracting the virus, others because they have symptoms, and still others because they found out that they have been in contact with a confirmed case of coronavirus.

Over the weekend and with much fewer tests, the confirmed cases were:

Saturday 1 January: 30,010, 59 deaths and intubations in 620 people. Sunday 2 January: 17,633, 61 deaths and intubation in 626. Monday 3 January: 36,246, 80 deaths and intubation in 615. Authorities Tuesday announced 50,000 cases…

With infections declining slightly over the weekend, some private television stations were quick to announce Sunday night that “the pandemic is almost over.”

On Monday morning, Minister of Development and Vice President of the New Democracy, Adonis Georgiadis announcedand that “the pandemic will end in a month.”

This is very similar to the new official version, as the government decided to reopen kindergartens, schools for extra classes (frontistirio) on Monday and plans to reopen schools of all levels on 10 January. Although the Omicron variant seems to be the most active infecting children and young people (however, most carry it with symptoms of mild flu).

Will the pandemic last or end soon? The problem is that the government is again sending mixed messages to the public, scaring the already intimidated (and confused) population of Greece.

Some local experts spoke earlier Monday about the peak of the pandemic from 19 to 22 January, when 65,000 cases of coronavirus will be recorded every day, and warned that confirmed cases could even reach 80,000 in one day. Other announced up to 50,000 cases on Tuesday and daily until January 25, and some said there was 70% protection for those who received the full vaccination as well as the booster shot.

Gikis Mallorkinis, assistant professor of health and epidemiology at the School of Medicine of the National University of Kapodistrias of Athens, who also conducts weekly briefings on the pandemic, told the state news agency Amna:

“The transmission of the Omicron variant is expected to peak quickly and begin to stabilize in January, in line with how it has behaved in South Africa. Most likely in January we will see a decline. The second scenario, less likely, is a decline until the end of February. Based on the above, I believe it will end soon. “

The Greek Epidemiological Committee is expected to meet in Wednesdayto provide guidance on school opening. Meanwhile, several ministers indicated that it is necessary to introduce additional restrictions and measures, but they again ruled out general isolation.

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