ATHENS — Civil Protection Michalis Chrysochoidis and the Deputy Minister of Civil Protection Nikos Hardalias will be in Thessaloniki on Monday, where they will hold a meeting with the city authorities to deal with the coronavirus.

The viral load of the wastewater analysis in Thessaloniki shows a strong increasing trend in the last measurements, in the research conducted by an interdisciplinary team of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) in collaboration with Thessaloniki Water Supply & Sewerage Company (EYATH).

After a period of about one month, where the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 in municipal wastewater was detected at consistently low levels, with small fluctuations between measurements, the latest results from the last two samplings show a significant increase.

"The cases are increasing, the numbers in the sewage system are starting to go upwards, which means that the bell is ringing again for new measures to be taken," the mayor of Thessaloniki, Konstantinos Zervas, said on Wednesday in an interview with the Athens-Macedonian News Agency's radio station 'Praktoreio 104.9 FM'.