ATHENS – A wave of the Omicron variant may be concealed within the Delta variant wave that is already sweeping Greece, expert epidemiologist Professor Sotiris Tsiodras said on Monday at an event organised by the Athens University’s School of Medicine.

“The situation in Europe concerns us. It could lead to a great Omicron pandemic in Europe and therefore we must remain vigilant and on alert and propose additional measures, if necessary,” he said.

He also advised that people very strictly adhere to the existing protection measures during the period of the holidays.

The head of the National Public Health Organisation Theoklis Zaoutis said NPHO had increased its tracing of cases and may increase testing, while noting that Greece was not yet experiencing an Omicron surge.

All speakers stressed the benefits of vaccination in terms of serious disease, including for children and teenagers, where all deaths and ICU admissions have involved unvaccinated cases.

Tsiodras also referred to re-infection caused by Omicron, saying the figures indicated that this rose from 1 pct for other variants to 8 pct for Omicron.