A sharp increase in the death toll due to the coronavirus pandemic is reported in Greece. Today 19 people have lost their lives, following the negative record number of 41 yesterday. The death toll is currently 885 persons.
“Our goal is to develop a safe and effective vaccine,” Lisa O’Neil, Pfizer’s global media relations leader, said on Wednesday in an interview with the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA).
Asked whether this vaccine will prove to prevent the disease or even death, she replied: We believe that vaccines are the only long-term solution to end this pandemic. The data makes us optimistic about our candidate vaccine, and brings us one step closer to providing a vaccine that will help prevent the further spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, much remains to be done before we can apply to the regulators for approval. We will continue to research this vaccine for safety and efficacy.
Health Minister Vasilis Kikilias is in the northern port city of Thessaloniki today, following the aggressive increase in Covid-19 cases in the city.
Thessaloniki is still a long away from flattening the epidemiological curve, according to measurements taken by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) and the Thessaloniki Water and Sewage Company (EYATH) to detect the concentration of the SARS-CoV-2 genome in city’s wastewater.
According to an analysis of last week’s samples, the concentration of the viral genome in Thessaloniki’s sewage is still increasing rapidly, in contrast to the declining numbers of cases reported over the last few days.
The lockdown may be extended beyond Nov.30, if necessary, stated at Skai radio professor of microbiology, Alkiviadis Vatopoulos. Next week’s data will be crucial to this decision.
The Greek-owned tanker “EPHESOS” collided with a Turkish fishing boat 37 nautical miles off the Turkish city of Mersin early on Wednesday. The causes of the collision remain unclear so far, while four passengers from the fishing boat are missing.
The Greek tanker was carrying a crew of 27 people, including 13 Greeks, while the exact number of passengers on the overturned fishing boat has not been made clear so far.
A light tremor measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale was recorded at 08:49 on Wednesday, 285 km east of Athens, the Geodynamics Institute of the National Observatory of Athens said.
Its epicentre was located 13 km east-northeast of Samos.
Government representatives are visiting the island of Crete today, in order to assess the damage caused by the bad weather that hit Hersonissos in the prefecture of Herakleion and Mylopotamos in the prefecture of Rethymno yesterday.
And the weather forecast…
Partly cloudy in Attica today with a chance of rain in the north and east later in the day. The temperature will reach a maximum of 19 degrees Celsius.
