ATHENS — Thursday was another bad day for Greece, with health authorities reporting 59 deaths from the novel coronavirus, 3,227 new cases and a total of 499 hospital patients on ventilators.

All confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic total 85,261, of which 4,725 are related to travel abroad and 21,605 to already known cases.

Meanwhile, patients on ventilators have risen to 499. Their median age is 65 years, 81.6 pct have an underlying condition or are aged 70 or more and 153 of them are women. Another 427 have been discharged from ICUs so far.

EODY also announced 59 deaths, bringing the total of Greeks who died because of the virus to 1,347. Of the latter, their median age was 80 years, 97.2 pct had an underlying condition and/or were aged 70 or more and 547 were women.

Earlier today, 14 residents and 3 staff members have tested positive to the novel coronavirus at the "Diamantidios Stegi" nursing home for Pontic Greeks in Thessaloniki, it was reported on Thursday.

Two of those who tested positive are hospitalized but out of danger, while the rest have been quarantined in a separate unit at the nursing home.

Tests for the virus are being carried out on everyone on a weekly basis for precautionary reasons, representative of the managing board Anatoli Dimitriadou told Athens-Macedonian News Agency.

The home houses 48 individuals of Pontic descent and has a staff of 20.