Newly confirmed COVID-19 cases, deaths steadily rising

With colder autumn weather setting in and much of northern Greece having been characterises as a red, high risk zone due to the exceptionally low rate of vaccination and higher number of cases, experts are increasingly concerned about the gradual, daily rise in the number of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases and the number of deaths.

There have been 3,164 newly confirmed cases in the last 24 hours (15 at points of entry into the country) and 43 deaths, bringing the death toll since the beginning of the epidemic in Greece to 15, 418.

The total number of confirmed cases in Greece since the start of the pandemic is 697,033, of which 50.8 percent are men.

Meanwhile, there are 347 patients intubated in hospital ICUs, with a median age of 66-years-old. Nearly 82 percent have a prior, underlying health condition or are age 70 or older.

Of intubated patients, 307, or 88.47 percent are unvaccinated or have received just one jab. Only 40 (11.53 percent) are fully vaccinated,

The government has attempted to marshal that data on unvaccinated ICU patients to persuade people to be vaccinated, with little success so far.

The number of new hospital admissions is another area of concern, with 212 in the last 24 hours, a 10.42 percent rise from the previous day. The average number of daily admissions for the last week is 204 patients.

Finally, the median age of newly confirmed cases is 39, while  78 was the median age of those who died,