Greece breaks new record on daily coronavirus infections

By Magda Panoutsopoulou

ATHENS (AA) - New coronavirus cases saw another surge Tuesday with a record 8,613 infections, marking the highest daily rise since the start of the pandemic, according to the National Organization for Public Health.

The Attica region tops the list of new infections with 1,999 cases in the past 24 hours while Thessaloniki follows with 1.440.

Another 46 people died from the virus, taking that number to 16,414.

Since the pandemic began, Greece has confirmed 801,208 infections -- a daily change of 1.1%, said health authorities.

A total of 486 patients were on ventilators on Tuesday, up from 477 on Monday -- a rising number that has been pushing hospital capacities to their limits.

Of the 486, a total of 408, or nearly 84% are unvaccinated or partly vaccinated and 78, or 16%, are fully vaccinated.

The ICU occupancy rate has reached 88.9% throughout the country.

Professor of analytical chemistry and wastewater epidemiology, Nikolaos Thomaidis, sounded the alarm earlier Tuesday regarding Attica’s wastewater analysis that showed a rise of 61% of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

He gave a negative prognosis for new cases which he said would surpass the 8,000 mark.