The director of the 2nd ICU of the Papanikolaou Hospital, Nikos Kapravelos, spoke to “Socionia Ora MEGA” about the alarming increase in the number of coronavirus cases and also about the increase observed in the hard indicators.

Mr. Kapravelos spoke about the outbreak of coronavirus cases, but also about re-infections.

“We need to feel more free, however the pandemic is not over, the facts are relentless. I sat down and looked at the figures, which I have already made public, and I saw that last July ended with 400 dead, while this year over 1,000 dead. Based on 2020 statistics, monthly deaths did not exceed 500. They jumped to 1,300 by 2021 and in 2022 the average deaths are over 1,300. The pandemic is not over for Greece, but neither for the world,” he initially said.

Regarding the increase in deaths, Mr. Kapravelos said that “it is due to the extreme relaxing measures. I see it everywhere, no one observes the basic protection measures, masks are nowhere to be found, people are crowding, we see that a very small percentage of the elderly have taken the 4th dose. Vaccines are not a panacea, immunity is lost after some time. In the hospital we don’t have a “tsunami”, it’s still manageable.”

“My fear is in the fall when the schools will open, the closed spaces, the weather favors the coronavirus. I fear a new 7th wave that will burden the NHS, and may lead to collapse. We cannot rely only on the positive scenario, we must also emphasize the other point of view because we have been “burnt”. The outbreak will start from northern Greece. Both the ministry and the citizens must be convinced that we are not done with the pandemic,” he added.

“For our safety, masks should be brought back, vaccinations to tame this virus. In medicine we were not taught death, no one can predict it. Deaths are deaths, they are loss of human life and they could have been prevented. We can still prevent deaths,” he concluded, talking about the lifting of the measures but also about the possibility of them coming back in the fall.