OUR now weekly announcement of cases, hospitalizations and deaths (i) in our country since the beginning of last month it has been clear that the general view of coronavirus now it has completely moved into a new chapter, despite its wide distribution and many cases.

“We are here for the first time, after two and a half years pandemicin the age of life with coronavirus, and from this point of view, talking about waves no longer makes much sense, ”says Stelios LoukidisPresident of the Hellenic Society of Pulmonologists and Head of the 2nd Pulmonology Clinic at Attikon.

He himself emphasizes that hospitalizations are now much more about simple beds than intensive care units, while and when patients, the vast majority of whom are elderly, enter intensive care units, to a very large extent they die from the underlying disease. . not from the coronavirus.

Mr. Loukidis still believes that the spread is already too wide and that it is also much more difficult to observe the big picture now, given that many people are slightly ill and have found out that they are ill by self-testing. a test they never stated.

“However, I don’t think that there is much room for growth in the current cases in the early autumn,” he emphasizes.

Waiting for a new mutation

OUR Dimitris ParaskevisVice President of EODY and Deputy Professor of the Department of Epidemiology – Preventive Medicine of the Laboratory of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics of the EKPA, believes that this summer the logic by which society operates is very different from last year, and this is due to the main weakening of the coronavirus.

“Firstly, for two weeks now we have been in a de-escalation phase,” he says, and continues: “We will have new outbreaks in the winter, and returning to closed premises will contribute to a new increase in the number of cases, but when we have a new outbreak, we do not we can calculate the time. We are also waiting to see if we have some new mutation and how it will change all the correlations. In short, we will still have the ups and downs of covid 19, but now all the tools are in our hands.“.

As Mr. Paraskevis explains, much of the world is already slightly ill and will continue to do so. “A big burden falls on vulnerable groups. We all need to pay attention to them,” he emphasizes and adds: “It’s good that now a large arsenal can be used in these groups: monoclonal antibodies, antiviral drugs, vaccines, as well as more traditional means such as protective masks.”

By the end of October the next wave

They talk about the new chapter of the pandemic and Nikos Tsanakis professor of pulmonology at the University of Crete. “You will see that in today’s EODY announcement, the number of cases and hospitalizations will decrease compared to previous weeks,” he notes.

According to Mr. Tzanakis, we are already in the decompression phase, which is good news considering that we are in the heart of August with tourism in full swing.

“If we continue like this, we will start with a good September,” he says with restrained optimism and explains when a new wave is expected: “If we are talking about a new wave, I date it to mid-late October.. Autumn is the time when viruses “boot” and the cold also appears.”

“However, I agree with Mr. Loukidis that at this stage the discussion about waves does not make much sense, since for people under the age of 65 who have well-managed health problems, the virus is now endemic creating the conditions for a simple illness and a cold.

Like Mr. Paraskevis, he also believes that from the coming autumn, a heavy burden should fall on the vulnerable and vulnerable, on those who are elderly, on those who have serious health problems – oncological, hematological patients receiving immunomodulatory drugs and etc.