Signs hospital pressure starting to ease

Data from the first 10 days of May show a slow and steady decline in occupancy rate of Covid beds

Offering a glimpse of optimism, health authorities say there are now clear indications that pressure is beginning to ease on the country’s National Health System.

More specifically, the number of hospital admissions of Covid-19 patients in each of the first 10 days of May was below 400, while yesterday it was less than 300 (294), according to data from Greece’s ambulance service, EKAB, and National Public Health Organization (EODY).

The hospital admission rate in the period from mid-March to April 20 ranged around 500, while on some days it exceeded 550.

Also, tellingly, since the beginning of May, the number of admissions of Covid patients has been the same or less than the number of discharges.

By comparison, in the week of April 26 to May 2, the ratio of admissions of new patients to discharges due to recovery was 1:1 (3,018 admissions and 3,016 discharges), for the first time since January, while yesterday there were 67 discharges more than admissions.

What’s noteworthy is that in the previous month, between April 5 and 11, when the pressure on the National Health System peaked, patient admissions came to 3,707 per day and the total number of discharges due to recovery to 2,987.

In addition, the latest data has shown that the occupancy rate of Covid beds – regular and intensive – is also slowly but steadily declining.

The occupancy rate is now at 47% for regular Covid beds and 77.5% for intensive care unit (ICU) Covid beds. In mid-April, those percentages had stood at 59% for regular beds and 89% for ICU beds.

“We have fewer cases and we also have empty beds in the ICU units. But we still have admissions of new patients, some whose condition deteriorates rapidly and who need more treatment or intubation,” said the director of the Sotiria Hospital’s 7th Pulmonary Clinic and chairman of the Central Health Council, Mina Gaga, in comments to Skai TV.

According to Gaga, the vast majority of patients are either unvaccinated or people who had only had the first dose of the vaccine.

She added that, so far, out of about 5,000 patient admissions at her hospital, there were only two cases of people who have been fully vaccinated.