Filenews 4 September 2021 - by Marilena Panagi
With August recording an increase of 86% compared to July, in terms of the number of deaths of coronavirus patients and the number of elderly people infected with the virus and several of them, admitted or even ending up in the wards and ICU of state hospitals showing an increase, September began with the launch of the new vaccination programme of the Ministry of Health which concerns, this time, the administration of a third dose to specific groups of the population.
Yesterday, 149 elderly people in nursing homes received the booster vaccine dose and the programme is expected to be extended in the coming days to all nursing homes and closed facilities that accommodate elderly people.
The third dose is not mandatory for anyone, clarifies the Minister of Health Michalis Chatzipandelas, while stressing that it is not connected in any way, nor with the criteria for the issuance of SafePass or GreenPass.
Specifically, and as Michalis Hadjipantelas mentioned, "the third dose, as it applies to vaccination in general, is not mandatory and it is up to the citizen to choose whether or not to receive it", adding that "whether or not a citizen received the booster dose does not affect the validity of either SafePass or GreenPass which will apply afterwards".
Ministry of Health and scientists, signal that "September is a month of regrouping for all and this should be done in terms of everyone's cooperation in dealing with the pandemic.
The scientists point out that "the 'D' mutation has overturned all the data", stress that the 'Mu' mutation, which has already made its appearance in Greece, is now under surveillance and warn that "we must not prepare for an end (of the pandemic) that we do not know when it will come". They stress that "at the moment, by granting reinforcing doses, we are acting preventively in order not to risk the lives of those most at risk", and underline the need for "better communication with citizens", citing the findings of the first social study presented yesterday during a press conference and concern the lack of trust of citizens in the State and the scientific community.
"Here we have to put a line," the head of the Advisory Scientific Committee, Konstantinos Tsioutis, said in a statement, adding that "the scientific community receives the messages and responds, 18 months later, we must all learn from our mistakes. We all need to work together to get into autumn and winter as safe as possible."
"Restrictions and space closures do not bring a meaningful and timeless effect if we do not understand that we need to keep ourselves as safe as possible," he noted, noting that "we have opened and had to close again three times. We have seen hospitals and ICU filled, and we have lost over 500 people. The future that is our schools, has been damaged two years in a row, and they are now reopening. If we want to keep our children safe, let's set common goals and act responsibly so that we don't expose them once again."
On his part, the scientific advisor of the Ministry of Health, Christos Petrou, said that "distrust in science unfortunately costs lives", noting also that "with proper information, transparency and collegiality we could succeed". The mutations, he said, "and especially the 'Delta' mutation, have substantially overturned what we knew so far about the coronavirus", underlining that "it will not be the last variant of concern since we already have the mutation 'Mu' which was detected in Greece and we all know what this entails for Cyprus.
"We need cooperation, we need attention from everyone, not to forget what we learned for a year and a half, to learn to live with the virus in order to continue our lives in as normal a way as possible," the two scientists stressed.
"Metropolitan Morphou is doing damage"
The Minister of Health, Michalis Hadjipantelas, presented himself intense in their statements regarding the statements and the general attitude of Metropolitan Morphou on the pandemic. In response to a relevant question, he said that "his statements (the Metropolitan) do damage" and added that "the only thing I have to say is that the Attorney General for the first time led a Metropolitan to court and is in danger of being convicted. For Morfou, he has been issued some fines and he went to court and if he does not comply, the information I have is that in his case there will be a penalty as there is for all citizens. There is no favour for all metropolitans and this is something we did not see in previous years."
86% increase in deaths in August
A significant increase was recorded in the month of August, in the number of deaths due to the coronavirus, after last month reached the levels of December 2020 and January 2021.
Analytically:
► As of September 1, 2021, 589 deaths of people diagnosed with COVID-19 have been reported. 65% are men (n=383 deaths) and the remaining 35% are women (n=206 deaths).
► Of the 589 deaths, 507 (86%) had an underlying cause of COVID-19.
► 64.5% of the total number of deaths with an underlying cause of COVID-19, concerns men (n = 327 deaths) and the remaining 35.5% concerns women (n = 180 deaths).
► Almost one in five deaths occurs in the 80-84 age group (n=106).
► In the month of August 2021, the number of deaths with an underlying cause of COVID-19 has increased by 86% compared to the month of July 2021.
► The total number of deaths of people diagnosed with COVID-19, in the month of August 2021 (n=85), reached the same level as the number of deaths of December 2020 (n=85) and January 2021 (n=86). Since the beginning of the pandemic, the rate for the three months with the highest numbers has reached 43% of the total number of deaths. It is followed by April 2021 with 11% (n=66), May 2021 with 10% (n=58) and July with 8% (n=46).
► The median age of people who ended up with an underlying cause of COVID-19 is 78 years (Intraquartile range: 69-86 years).
