ATHENS — Greek authorities on Sunday announced 693 new cases of SARS-CoV-2 and 85 deaths from Covid-19 over the last 24 hours. Ten of the new cases were detected among people entering at the borders.

This raises the total number of confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic to 124,534, of which 52.6 pct are men. Of these, 4.1 pct are considered linked to travel abroad (5,019) and 28.6 pct to another known case (35,564).

The total number of deaths since the start of the pandemic has risen to 3,625, with women accounting for 1448 (39.9 pct) of this total. The median age of those that died was 79 years old and 95.8 pct had either an underlying condition or were aged above 70.

The number of patients intubated in hospital was 552 and their median age was 66 years old, with women making up 29.3 pct (162) of the total. Of those intubated, 77 pct have either an underlying condition or are aged above 70 years old.

A total of 730 patients have been discharged from ICUs.

The government said it will maintain core lockdown measures through the Christmas holidays, acknowledging that month long restrictions have not reduced COVID-19 cases to the extent it had hoped for.