Free PCR with the contribution of the army announced by Pleyris

To the already existing structures of the EODY and the NHS will be added, with the contribution of the army, another 50 points and will reach 100. There, citizens will be able to do free PCR test said Health Minister Thanos Plevris speaking today (13.01.2022) in the First Program.

In a teleconference held yesterday between the officials of the Ministries of Health and Defence, it was decided that the Army would contribute to the free PCR test to the country's population.

Conscription of doctors in Attica as well

The Health Minister left open the possibility that the mobilization of private doctors, which began yesterday in northern Greece (Macedonia and Thrace), to be extended to Attica. As he stressed, he has already asked the mayors of the basin to record and submit to the Ministry of Health their needs.

The recruitment of private doctors in the basin, however, will depend, as he added, on the course of cooperation with private clinics. Already, there is talk of health personnel from small private clinics being moved to the NHS to be used to open an additional 150 simple Covid beds in public hospitals.

Half the hospitalizations are Delta

Speaking about the pressure on the health system, he said that the peculiarity of the Omicron mutation, which causes short-stay hospitalisations, will soon contribute to the decongestion of hospitals, which is expected to happen after 20-25 January, when discharges will help to balance the NHS.

Today the presence of the Delta mutation in the community, Thanos Pleyris added, has declined to below 20% «and may even reach the point of extinction», he said. However, still this 15-20% of infections puts pressure on the health system, as it gives about half of the admissions and hospitalisations currently made in hospitals.

End of quarantine at 5 days

Asked about the reduction of isolation to 5 days from 10, the Health Minister clarified that this only applies to people who no longer have symptoms or were asymptomatic from the beginning. The scientists' directive, which he said was also based on CDC guidelines, is that isolation of people who have symptoms should continue up to 10, or even 14 days, depending on the strain they are infected with.

«If it is assessed by scientific evidence and by the expert committee that this directive should be amended, then obviously the Commission itself will review it,» he said.

With a vaccination certificate for the third vaccinated after the disease

The Minister of Health also clarified the issue of using the certificates of those who have recently contracted Covid and were previously vaccinated.

Those vaccinated with 3 doses who subsequently became ill, after 14 days from diagnosis (during which time they will not be able to use their vaccination certificate as it will be deactivated) will be able to use their vaccination certificate again.

«Their certificate will normally be valid after the end of the isolation period,» he said.

As for those who have been vaccinated with 2 doses of vaccine and then got sick, they «will receive the certificate of sickness after 14 days and after three months, they will get the third dose,» he said.

Penteli Children's Hospital: «The conversion into a vaccination centre is temporary»

Asked about the reactions caused by his decision to turn the Penteli Children's Hospital into a vaccination centre, Thanos Pleyris clarified that this is a temporary decision.

The hospital, he said, had been on call every Monday and Thursday until now, along with another children's hospital. In order to increase the vaccination lines to 13 by February 13, so that the vaccinations of young children could go ahead, it was decided to exempt the hospital from on-call duty for about 35 days.

«The exclusion of the Penteli Children's Hospital from on-call duty is not a permanent decision, but only applies to 8 to 10 on-call duties in total. That is, it will be off call for 4 to a maximum of 6 weeks. That is, in 30 to 40 days at the most it will be back on call,» he said.

He added that he had appealed to the courts against the decision of the workers to go on a 24-hour strike, as there was a risk of inconvenience to parents and children who had made an appointment for vaccination today.