Panic in Greece as UK tourists issued urgent warning over surging threat | World | News

Brits jetting off for sunny Greece this summer may be in for a nasty surprise, as the country has been hit with surging Covid cases.

There’s been a sharp rise in hospital admissions across the country and an increase in the new FLiRT variant.

In total, 669 new Covid patients were admitted to hospital from July 8 to 14. That’s a 44 percent increase in the weekly average compared to the same period last month.

There have been 26 Covid deaths reported by the country’s National Public Health Organisation, EODY.

In a concerning nod to the recent past, the Mentaxa Oncology Hospital in Piraeus, Athens, has rbrought in a mask policy and other measures.

Piraeus Matina Pagoni, President Association of Hospital Doctors’ Union of Athens, told MEGA: “It’s summer, we’re going on vacation, we never said the coronavirus was gone.

“The truth is that this year, compared to last year, the cases have nothing to do with it.

“There are too many hospitalisations and also deaths – 21-22 deaths are too many.”

The FLiRT variant is similar to the Omicron strain. According to Andy Pekosz, a professor in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Johns Hopkins University: “The FLiRT variants would be high on my list of viruses that could cause another wave of infections in the US.

“That said, our definition of a wave has changed; while we still see case rates rise and fall throughout the year, we see much lower numbers of cases of hospitalisations or deaths than we saw in the first couple of years of the pandemic.

“And yet, while these waves are becoming smaller, they are still having the greatest impact on our susceptible populations: the elderly, people who are immunocompromised and those with other secondary medical conditions.”