The rising trend of infection rates for SARS-CoV2 continues in Greece, with a rise also in deaths due to Covid-19, while a death due to influenza was also registered, in September 25-October 1, the National Public Health Organization (EODY) said in its weekly statistics report on Thursday.
The infection rate showed a small rise and the number of Covid-19 patients admitted to hospital showed a small drop compared to last week, but a 19% rise compared to the median new weekly additions during the last 4 weeks. New intubations presented a drop from last week, but a rise compared to the median new intubations for the last 4 weeks. The number of patients infected by Covid-19 who are intubated totals 36. There were also 53 deaths with a median age of 82 years (range: 66-102).
In the past few weeks, all all sequenced strains of the coronavirus belong to the subvariant BA.2 of Omicron. The most common subvariant of BA.2 was XBB.1.5. (42%), followed by EG.5 (25%) and XBB.1.16 (24%). Greece has recorded a total of 19 positive samples of subvariant BA.2.86, with samples taken from September 5 to 19.
In addition, viral load in city sewage samples showed a higher circulation rise of SARS-CoV-2 in 4 of the 8 regions sampled.
In terms of the influenza virus, the sentinel positive rate in the community remains below 10%. No new laboratory-confirmed flu case with an ICU hospitalization has been recorded in the past week, while a new death by lab-confirmed flu was recorded.
Overall, 71 people have been hospitalized with flu in ICUs and 28 deaths recorded for the season.
Influenza-like illnesses (regardless of pathogen) remain at low levels, while the Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection rates also remains low.