By Magda Panoutsopoulou
ATHENS (AA) - Greek authorities reported 2,215 new coronavirus cases on Friday with the Attica region remaining the epicenter, reporting almost half with 1,057 infections.
Professor of pediatric infectious diseases Vana Papaevangelou said the viral load has doubled in the last 15 days, with the number of active infections reaching 16,500.
But fewer infections are being seen in people aged 75 or older, possibly due to vaccinations, she added.
The health system is still under pressure with the increase in hospital admissions now averaging 330 daily.
Health experts raised concern about the rapid spread of the virus despite strict restrictive measures, citing the British variant as a main factor for the spread.
“In some areas the mutated variant is the predominant one reaching up to 90% while in other areas it was up to 40% a week ago while now it’s up to 60%,” the head of the Pan-Hellenic doctors association, Athanasios Exadaktilos, told Skai TV.
A total of 1.,667 cases of the variant have been identified in Greece, while in the Attica region that remains on high alert, 70% of cases are the British variant.
Another 32 deaths were registered in the last 24 hours, bringing the total since the first case was detected In Greece to 6,664.
It has confirmed 201,677 infections since the start of the pandemic.