The three-digit number of cases will continue in the coming days and the number of hospitalizations will increase, according to Dr. Petros Karagiannis, Professor of Microbiology / Molecular Virology at the Medical School of the University of Nicosia, who points out that people should be vaccinated that currently 16% of cases are in this age group.
In his statements to KYPE, Dr. Karagiannis said that the fact that for two consecutive days we now have three-digit numbers, this tells us that we will probably continue in the coming days because these cases will result in contacts, which will be positive.
What is of particular importance at the moment, he stressed, is the declaration of contacts. "We do not have the luxury of hiding contacts or declaring contacts for one reason or another and allowing potentially positive people to circulate until it is too late," he said.
And if we do not want to undermine the good image we had before, which is deteriorating and make it even worse, he continued, we must all show responsibility.
He criticized the fact that many citizens do not wear masks even indoors.
"We must all set a good example so as not to aggravate the situation further. Of course, we should expect that hospitalizations will increase. "Where many believe that these are young people who will pass it relatively easily, we have been warning for days that the Indian strain seems to be a little more aggressive, has a higher morbidity than the other mutant strains that have emerged so far and a higher transmissibility." reported.
Already, he said, there are very young people, who are in the Intensive Care Units and of course what we avoid is to lose so many young people because they did not go to be vaccinated and shielded for various reasons.
Respondent said the cases were most likely due to the Indian mutation. "Unfortunately, the results we had from the laboratory in Germany were for samples that were until May. Now we are almost the end of June. The increase in May was 9%. "At the moment, because it is a more contagious strain, it can account for 50% of cases," he added.
My advice to the world, said Professor Karagiannis, is if we want to spend the Summer more pleasantly without being afraid to move around, without destroying the epidemiological image we have and consequently the country's economy again, we must show a collective effort, to understand that self-protection measures and health protocols must be applied in the workplace and the mask used indoors. "Let us not rest assured that because some of us are vaccinated we will not be infected. We must prevent things from getting worse. "If an outbreak starts at the moment, now that it is June, think about how it will develop during the summer months", he pointed out.
Asked if the situation is reversible, he said yes. "We are talking about such numbers that could be checked very quickly, it is enough to identify and isolate the positive contacts. "If this is not done, we will see an increase in cases and we will certainly exceed 200 cases", he noted.
Dr. Karagiannis expressed the position that 16-year-olds and older should be vaccinated. "The chains at the moment are for people under 18 years old. 30% of cases are in people under 18 years of age who have not yet been vaccinated. If these people become infected then they will get the virus in their families and those in their workplace. "We will start the same cycle of infections as we had in the previous outbreak," he added.
Asked to comment on the stay of Cyprus in the orange category from Great Britain, the Professor said that "the British are watching the situation closely and see the momentum of things. When in ten days we went from about 60 cases and went up to 180, that is, we tripled the number of cases, that is what the British saw happening in their country, with the Indian mutation within a month - they had tripled the number of their cases. "Britain could not, after our situation worsened, put us in the green zone."
Finally, Dr. Karagiannis said that the Scientific Advisory Committee will have a teleconference during the weekend to study the epidemiological picture as it is formed and to discuss the issue of vaccination of adolescents.