The measures taken yesterday were targeted, without any attempt to disrupt society and the economy, but will be re-evaluated early next week, without excluding additional regulations, said the Head of the Advisory Scientific Committee Konstantinos Tsiotis to KYPE.
He clarified that the lockdown is currently considered the last measure which brings some result, but temporary, and with significant effects in other areas.
He stressed that of course all 3.000 cases are ringing the bell and the situation must be re-evaluated with the new data that will emerge, reminding that hospitalizations come with a delay and therefore the cases of these days will give us hospitalizations in the near future.
He said that studies so far show that the Omicron mutation gives a lower morbidity, but stressed that the number of cases is high. He also explained that the Delta mutation so far gave 3-4% of cases in hospitals but given the approximately 1.000 cases. However, he added, at the moment we already have 3.000 cases per day and it is possible that this will change upwards, "so the correlations are changing".
"I think we have not yet seen the effects on hospitals of the new Omicron variant and what it will bring with it, so we should remain cautious about Omicron's gravity and wait a little longer," he said.
The Head of the TEU reiterated the calls to limit our contacts these days and our social gatherings and faithful implementation of personal protection measures, ie proper use of a mask, isolation if we have symptoms, and frequent tests, emphasizing that the spread is everywhere and the positivity rate is very high.
"To think that the dispersion is large and therefore it is not at all difficult to be exposed," he said. He also reiterated calls for individual responsibility and behavior change, which is required when an epidemic of a contagious infectious disease occurs.
He also said that transmission chains were found in recreation and catering areas at the ages of mainly 20-40 years that probably had no or little symptoms, as a result of which they detected the virus slowly and thus had managed to transmit it to their environment.
He suggested limiting the symptoms and repeating the antigen tests, explaining that some studies show that vaccinated people with symptoms may test negative in the first few days, so he reminded that tests and molecular testing are needed there. a referral for PCR may be made by a personal physician.