ATHENS – The hot summer temperatures alone will likely not be enough to eradicate the novel coronavirus, the Health Ministry’s coronavirus spokesman and infectious diseases professor Sotiris Tsiodras said on Friday evening.

Speaking at the daily televised update, he cited the Robert Koch Institute, Germany's public health organization, which said that a second mass dispersal of the novel coronavirus in the summer time is possible.

Quelling speculations, Tsiodras stressed that "everything at the moment depends on our personal attitude, as the course of the epidemic in our country will depend on our voluntary compliance with the rules of hygiene in all our daily practices."

Asked about the time required to see the effect of the first lifting of restriction measures on the P0 infection dispersal indicator, he replied that "after 15 days we will know exactly where we are heading."

Referring to antibody tests, the professor cited an American report testing 1,300 people who had recovered from Covid-19 mild symptoms. When they were tested 21 days after their recovery, 92 pct of them they had formed positive antibodies to the disease, which the researchers linked to the ability of the human body to destroy the virus. "It appears that in the immediate future, people with positive antibodies will have some form of immunity from the current strain of the virus." The question, he said, that needed further examination was how long the immunity to Covid-19 lasts, by monitoring recovered patients for the next 6 or 12 months.

The professor also announced 13 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Greece in the last 24 hours and 2 new deaths. He said that six of these new cases were infected in a crowd.

The deaths included that of former health minister and cardiologist Dimitris Kremastinos, who was responsible for setting up heart clinics at Greek hospitals. Kremastinos was remembered by all speakers at the briefing, and earlier by the government and several political parties.

The Covid-19 infections total in Greece stands at 2,691. Some 603 cases were infected abroad and 1,349 in Greece.

Fatalities stand at 150 since the start of the outbreak; 40 of them were women. Of the 150, a 93.3 pct had underlying health issues and/or their average age was 70 years or more. The average age of all the deceased was 75 years of age.

Some 32 patients are being treated in Intensive Care Units with an average age of 67 years and 9 of these are women. A 97 pct of ICU patients have underlying health issues and/or are over 70 years of age.

Another 85 people have so far been discharged from ICUs.

Some 94,291 Covid-19 diagnostic tests have been carried out in Greece since the start of the outbreak.