Greek health authorities alarmed over new coronavirus variant

By Magda Panoutsopoulou

ATHENS (AA) - Health experts warned on. Friday about the spread of the Delta variant in areas that have a low vaccination coverage, which might result in local lockdowns.

Speaking on Skai TV, President of the National Organization for Public Health Panagiotis Arkoumaneas said that “at this point, the models show that in August, the Delta variant of COVID-19 (that emerged in India) is expected to become the dominant strain in all of Europe and possibly in our country, and the solution is to be vaccinated.”

Arkoumaneas explained that the global community is on alert and there is a concern because the specific variant is 50-60% more contagious than the first ones.

A total of 29 cases of the Delta variant have been detected in the country of which 18 were recorded in Crete island, while the rest were detected in the Attica region and Thessaloniki.

On a similar note, Nikolaos Tzanakis, a professor of pulmonology at the University of Crete, said the cases detected on Crete Island were those who had not been vaccinated, stressing the importance of vaccination.

Speaking on Skai TV, Tzanakis claimed that the Indian, or Delta variant, will be dominant in the country until the end of August and did not rule out the possibility of local lockdowns.

Greece confirmed 489 new coronavirus infections on Thursday, according to the country's public health organization.

The country has confirmed 419,909 infections since the start of the pandemic.

Also, 15 more deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours, bringing the total fatalities to 12,613.