ATHENS – Health Minister Thanos Plevris in an interview with Skai TV on Tuesday estimated the the pandemic will peak in the coming weeks and the infections will set a new record.

“We expect a large number of cases and a high percentage of positivity. We are all aware of this. The numbers are totally different after 1,500,000 tests than after 100,000 tests. Therefore, I believe that this week and the following week, Covid cases will be high,” Plevris said.

He added that the “Omicron” variant is treated differently. During the “Delta” variant, cases were important because they were leading to a larger number of hospitalisations. “Omicron” numbers may be high, but what concerns us most is the number of hospitalisations.

He stressed that for the time being there are 9,700 positive self-tests among pupils and teachers, of which about 1,000 are teachers and the rest are pupils.

Plevris reiterated that the hospitals in Attica region are being reinforced with additional beds and that doctors in northern Greece will be requisitioned as of Wednesday.

In addition, he said that the Committee of Experts is also meeting on Wednesday to re-evaluate the measures.