Health ministry abolishes vax, illness certificates, EODY announces 48 COVID deaths, over 7,000 infections

With the COVID-19 epidemic rapidly winding down, the Greek health ministry announced today that it is abolishing both for Greeks and foreign visitors all European COVID-19 vaccination and illness certificates as of 1 May, and all restaurants, cafes, and other public venues will operate at full capacity.

Health Minister Thanos Plevris also announced today that the compulsory wearing of masks indoors will be extended at least through 31 May.

Meanwhile, the National Public Health Organisation (EODY) today announced the death of 48 COVID-19 patients and confirmed 7,580 new infections in the last 24 hours.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 29,073 COVID-19 patients have died in Greece, 95.5 percent with an underlying medical condition and/or age 70 or older.

A total of 3.3mn infections have been recorded by EODY since the start of the pandemic (48.9 percent men), with a 0.2 percent point daily rise.

COVID reinfections

In the last 24 hour hours, EODY has recorded 233 COVID-19 reinfections, while it figures that there have been 121,976 since the start of the pandemic (3.6 percent of the total number of infections).

Intubated patients, hospital admissions

There are currently 260 intubated COVID-19 patients (65 percent men), with a median age of 71 years old, while 93.1 percent have an underlying medical condition and/or are age 70 or older.

Of intubated patients, 55 percent are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, while 45 percent are fully vaccinated.

EODY records ICU patients who have had two doses as fully vaccinated, but in the general population only those who have had three jabs are recorded as completely vaccinated.

In the last 24 hours, 191 COVID-19 patients were admitted to hospital, a 1.6 percentage point daily rise. For the last seven days, the average daily number of admissions is 175 patients.

The median age of individuals with newly confirmed infections was 36, while the median age of those who died was 79 years old.

COVID-19 testing

From 1 January until today, private labs that conduct COVID-19 tests and systematically report results to EODY have conducted 10.98mn tests.

EODY health units that conduct Rapid Ag tests have examined 68.5mn samples. The average seven-day number of random tests 126,725.