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This Monday begins a critical period in our country, since the course of the coronavirus in the next two weeks will decide whether the government will proceed with even stricter measures, such as confinement, or not.
The second wave of the pandemic, which affects the entire planet, has proven to be longer and more dangerous, since there are many more than the first wave without the “safety valve” of the blockade.
The recent coronavirus outbreak in our country occurred in less than a month: at the beginning of October many areas (in addition to the always “champion”) Attica had a single digit number of cases. Now Attica, Thessaloniki, Serres, and Ioannina have caught fire, and overall Northern Greece has been painted “red” with many of its regions leading the pandemic. 
The Thessaloniki example is typical. On Monday October 5, the Thessaloniki Region had only two (!) Cases of coronavirus! Today, however, Sunday, 181 cases were announced in the co-capital and in the previous days there were even more.
According to EODY data, in the first 22 days of October cases in Thessaloniki increased by 131% compared to the whole of September, in Kozani by 317% (!) And in Kastoria by 154% during the same period.
Also, Serres with more than 240 active cases is a “breather” before the upgrade to level 4 and the local lockdown.
With daily cases breaking record after record, the stage for a four-digit number of cases becomes increasingly visible. In fact, infectious disease specialists make predictions of 2,000 cases a day, something that will probably bring the general blockade in our country again.
The “explosion” of daily infections was followed by the “eruption” of the number of hospitalized patients: from 780 to 835! 113 of them are in Intensive Care Units, testing the resistance of the health system.
However, despite the difficult data, the government is determined to test all other available measures before resorting to the general lockdown solution, which would be detrimental to the economy.
Mitsotakis: our goal is to avoid horizontal blocking
Avoiding a horizontal blockade is the main objective of the government, as stressed by Kyriakos Mitsotakis during his speech in Parliament.
The Prime Minister referred to the two additional measures in areas 3 and 4, namely the mandatory wearing of masks everywhere and the curfew from 12:30 to 5:00, while announcing that the Police and the Control mechanisms will be very strict for the unconscious. businessmen who insist on breaking the law and offering “dangerous entertainment.”
The Prime Minister presented four maps to support that Greece is managing the pandemic with relative success compared to other countries. 
According to the data presented by Mr. Mitsotakis, Greece, along with the Scandinavian countries, are among the best in terms of overall management of the pandemic. It is in the first countries in terms of the number of tests, it is also “green” together with Germany in terms of the number of tests that test positive for the coronavirus in relation to the total number of tests performed and also in the mortality rate Greece is the best country than measured.
“We have difficult months ahead of us,” Mitsotakis said, stressing, however, that “hope for safe and effective vaccines, which our country will have access to, is fading deep in the tunnel.”
The prime minister said he was “very satisfied” with the “speed of implementation of the influenza vaccination program.” 40% of vaccinations are carried out. It is imperative that a second covid outbreak does not coincide with a seasonal flu outbreak, “he added.
The measures that the government is considering to “exorcise” the confinement
According to BIMA on Sunday, in 2,000 cases the government will proceed with a general blockade. However, before imposing a new quarantine, government personnel have three more “tools” they can use to defuse the epidemic.
The next step in an effort to trap the virus inside the walls is to ban traffic outside the outlying units to the orange areas.
The reduction of working hours is also being considered in the catering and entertainment sectors, which are at level 3.
Finally, government personnel leave open the possibility of imposing travel restrictions on citizens over 65.
The new bans will be activated if the existing measures do not work.
According to experts, the epidemiological picture can be reversed for the better again with the faithful observance of the measures by all citizens. In this context, the next two weeks are considered critical for the course of the pandemic in our country.
What didn’t go well in Thessaloniki
“Everything went wrong” is the disarming response of the president of the Panhellenic Medical Association and member of the Scientific Committee of the Ministry of Health for the coronavirus, Athanasios Exadaktylos in Free Press, on the situation in northern Greece.
He stressed that Macedonia and Thrace are adjacent to many Balkan countries, whose citizens come to Greece as agricultural workers or do business with Greeks. In addition, in August there was a large wave of road tourists from both the Balkans and Central European countries, “he added, adding that despite the measures, communication with the rest of the country had continued normally in recent months. “Only Thessaloniki continues to have five daily flights to Athens,” he stressed. 
According to him, for the generalized bad image, it is said that the relaxation of the citizenship played a great role, many of which in the August-September two-month period “returned to protest, protesting with marches, going to festivals and various events, without observing protection measures “.
“We have been saying this to the committee since the beginning of August and we have been trying to get the attention of citizens. We didn’t have to relax. He shouldn’t have gotten carried away in the summer. “We said it ourselves, we heard it ourselves,” he said.
Referring especially to Thessaloniki, he estimated that its inhabitants have been victims of its success during the previous months. Thessaloniki, hearing the “bravo” of Sotiris Tsiodras, began to do what he did not do until then. “The festivals and events have started,” he said. In fact, he made special reference to the return of students to higher education institutions in the city.
Characteristically, the eruption of cases in Thessaloniki began to register exactly ten days after the start of deliveries at the city’s universities. And it is not only the chronological identification of the increase in cases, but also the age, since the second wave especially affects young people and, in fact, in Thessaloniki the average age of the cases is 28 years. 
As for Kozani, Mr. Exadaktylos transmitted the information he had, according to which, its inhabitants had completely neglected the protection measures, although they had been particularly affected in the spring by the first wave of the coronavirus.
“Cases were found in all activities: private sector, public sector, PPC, catering, supermarkets, etc. There was nowhere where a case had not been detected. In Kozani and Kastoria we have to look for the causes of the cross-border movement with neighboring countries, mainly of land workers. The spread of cases in the two specific areas is so heterogeneous and so great that it could not be easily controlled. “That is exactly why they were closed,” he said.
One step before the closure is Serres
The Serres region is one step ahead of level 4 of the epidemiological map, since 239 active cases have been identified in the region.
The streets are empty and those in traffic are all in disguise.
After an extraordinary meeting at the Serres Regional Unit, the Vice Minister of Civil Protection, Nikos Hardalias called on young people to help in the fight against the coronavirus.
“We will avoid the shutdown, it will be catastrophic for the economy and for us,” Central Macedonia Governor Apostolos Tzitzikostas said.
According to experts, most of the cases in the area came from Thessalonians who visited Serres mainly on weekends to be able to have fun in the bars and after midnight.
The next two weeks will be crucial for Serres, as it will show whether the measures will work and put a stop to the coronavirus.
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