A New Case

[Yin&Yang]

I follow NSA Souda on Facebook and a few hours ago they posted the Team Souda,

“The Chania General Hospital director reported this morning that a 76-year-old man from Chania tested positive for COVID-19. He is in good condition and is being treated in the hospital's COVID-19 clinic. Contact tracing is being performed and we will keep you updated as this case progresses.

You may have also heard about a new COVID-19 case being reported in Kissamos over the weekend. The elderly man who originally tested positive has tested negative in a second test. All of his relatives and the people he had contact with have also tested negative. He remains in the hospital and is being given a third test.

This is a good reminder that as Greece eases restrictions and re-opens businesses, we still need to continue to keep physical distance from others, avoid crowded places, wear masks in public places, and practice good hygiene habits. These things are intended to keep Team Souda safe and healthy so we can continue to accomplish our mission here.“

[Kilkis]

I went shopping to Lidl and AB today, the first time since 15 April. In Lidl, apart from me, no customers were wearing face masks or gloves and only one member of staff was doing so. Checkout staff and virtually all staff stacking shelves had no protection at all. In AB it was similar. They had hand gel and petrol station type gloves at the entrance and the person in front of me used them. I saw no staff and no other customers wearing masks or gloves. People don't seem to understand that for masks to have an effect on the spread of the virus absolutely every single person needs to wear them in indoor situations. In my local supermarket ALL staff wear masks and gloves but sadly the vast majority of customers don't. There seems to be a pretty widespread impression that relaxing lockdown means going back to what they were doing before. If everybody does that the infection rate of the virus will return to what it was before.

Warwick

[Yin&Yang]

I have had similar experiences and return home thoroughly distressed. I for one will continue with my gloves and face mask and hope that as the island becomes more populated over Summer, that such precautions will become the norm.

[shine on]

I was around Jumbo and Lidl today and saw quite a few tourists, the hire car, pale skin, no mask, no gloves and shirtless full bellied sweaty body tightly holding a case of cheapo beer gave it away. At first I thought it was my reflection but it couldn’t be, as I drink wine. I think it best I be more cautious as it gets busier here, so I’ve stocked up on more gloves and masks and will avoid the tourist stomping grounds.

[mythos master]

Yep,similar experience,people sniggering because i have a mask and gloves on,some fairly large supermarkets have no screening fitted at tills,no floor markings and no staff wearing ppe,but do have space marked out at fruit and veg weighing area,also the last two days have witnessed people shaking hands outside a kiosk,seems to be same thinking (or not) as overtaking on double white lines on a bend or going uphill,unsurprisingly since easing of lockdown and traffic increase the demon asphalt has started to claim a few victims,i was involved with health and safety in uk and one trainer used to say that everybody needs a near miss from time to time as it makes them think,unfortunately there are no near misses with this virus

[Jean]

unfortunately there are no near misses with this virus

Most people who get infected only have mild symptoms. Wouldn't that qualify as a near miss?

Something else: what protection do you get from wearing gloves? I am not talking about how you'd use gloves in an operating room but in daily life (where you put them on and take them off by yourself and occasionally scratch your nose with them).

[shine on]

With me, having gloves on is a reminder not to touch my face, and there is a way of taking them off without the exterior of the glove touching your hands. After I discard my gloves I then wipe my hands on antibacterial hand wipes that I keep with me always, just to make double sure. Many years ago I was told that a supermarket trolly or basket carries many germs and that I should always wash my hands after touching them, or better still, wear a glove. Good advice then as it is now as well as the future.

[Marooned]

I've been keeping track of how things are changing, as the restrictions lift. First the curfew was gone, and already at this point, I saw that the order to wear masks (for employees) was not taken seriously, and that customers typically don't bother.

With restaurants now open, well, you can guess what the situation is like. I didn't see any attempts to distance the tables or anything like that.

I was trying to figure out for a while now, why it is that I feel uncomfortable. I think I'm uncomfortable because for the first time, I have no idea what the government's strategy actually is. Doesn't seem to be communicated via the news media. Because it's obvious how people will act, it's summer and everyone wants to party, not social distance. The lack of any news makes me think that this is expected, even if it's against the official narrative

[Marooned]

For example, I read this: https://greece.greekreporter.com/2020/0 ... in-greece/

And I feel relieved, as though it's over!

What I missed was a cogent argument or explanation of how we're certain that there wouldn't be a second wave. Why not? Is contact tracing really going to be effective enough?

[YoMo2]

Seems like a safe bet there will be a second wave. Question is, how much of one? I reckon it might be quite significant on Crete, because of tourism. A depressing thought.

Andrew

[margarita]

We spent a good few hours in A&E at Hania hospital yesterday afternoon. It didn't strike me as the most hygienic of places.

The medical staff all wore masks & gloves whilst attending to patients but there seemed to be no requirement for the general public to wear masks/gloves. In the waiting room some of the seats had been cordoned off to maintain social distancing but many people were disregarding this. There was no soap or paper towels in the toilets. There was hand sanitiser available in the waiting room but no instruction/reminder to use it.

It was the first time since the start of lockdown that I had left confines of Kalyves and the first time I had felt unsafe.

Anyway the medical staff were very diligent and carried out all sorts of tests on the patient & we were able to return home some hours later - panic over.

Edited to add: There were plenty of well-armed guards around, so I felt very safe in case of a terrorist attack!

[Kilkis]

The success of Greece in containing the spread of the virus, through a pretty well implemented lockdown, is also a problem for Greece.

The low number of recorded cases and the low number of deaths probably mean that a much smaller percentage of the population has been infected with the virus in Greece than countries like Italy, Spain and the UK. Until a widespread anti-body test has been implemented nobody knows for sure but the best estimate for the UK is that, averaged over the whole country, about 10 % of the population has been infected, possibly less. If correct that would mean that Greece probably has about 5 % of the population who were infected. The virus has not gone away. Releasing lockdown without other effective mitigating measures in place gives it the opportunity to start to spread at virtually the same rate it did at the beginning of the outbreak, i.e. doubling every two to three days. I have serious doubts that the Greek government has in place a test, trace isolate system that can contain that rate of increase.

A secondary but nevertheless important issue is that of seasonality. It is well known that flu is highly seasonal. Conditions in summer tend to destroy the virus so it dies back. At the moment it is not known if COVID-19 has strong seasonality, weak seasonality or is not seasonal at all. All possibilities have their own risks. If it is strongly seasonal it is possible that there will be no immediate second wave, despite the easing of lockdown, because it is naturally dying back. That, however, would produce a false confidence and people would get progressively less vigilant as the summer progresses. When the virus re-emerges in the winter it would have ideal conditions to spread rapidly again at a time of year when hospitals tend to be overloaded with other diseases like flu. If it is weakly seasonal or not seasonal at all then easing of lockdown could trigger a very rapid second wave necessitating a second lockdown before there had been any economic recovery from the first.

If the government now has the capability to quickly scale up its test, trace and isolate programme in order to keep ahead of the disease and contain it by that method, as South Korea did, then there is no problem. If it can't then there is a major potential problem.

Warwick

[Maud]

Your final sentence made me smile Margarita. When the slogan in the U.K. changed to ‘Stay alert’ the journalist Jeff Korfman made a comment on the BBC programme Dateline London. He ridiculed the comment by stating the virus is not a bomb that we should be looking for in railways stations and airports etc’ but a damn virus. He asked how does one stay alert to look for a virus? - I don’t think it comes accompanied by armed guards!

Did anyone else see Milos on the BBC News last night? Two doctors were heading to the island to test the 250 residents. There hasn’t been any reported cases there but it was felt the population should be tested. The locals obviously felt safe and not bothered about the virus. Their way of life seems to have changed little through this pandemic. I worry that when the tourists start arriving they will bring it with them, as there don’t appear to be any lifestyle change there. One person said there had only been two cases reported in the while of the Cyclades, so he wasn’t worried!

My guess is that this same complacency has begun on Crete. People feel that the virus isn’t ‘around’ them, so they don’t need to worry about masks and social distancing. I think Marooned has a good point. We are stuck in the U.K., and we are still being bombarded daily by information to tell us to social distance etc. - Not that it always does a lot of good! (TV pictures of Southend Beach again on Monday!). It will be even n less effective after that idiot Cummings went on his ‘jolly’ to Barnard Castle.......let alone driving over 250 miles with someone suffering from Covid 19 in the car!

[Clio]

It didn't strike me as the most hygienic of places.

I think this is a real problem. Having had more experience than I would have wished of three major Cretan hospitals - both inpatient and outpatient facilities - I have nothing but praise for the doctors, particularly the overworked and underpaid junior ones. When asked what I thought of the Greek health system I was always fiercely loyal to my host country and played up the quality of the medical care.

But if anyone really needed to know, if they were likely to need to use the hospitals, I felt it necessary to prepare them, and be honest. To warn them that other aspects of the hospital environment might tend to fall short of what they might expect. That outpatient clinics, even in Heraklion's university hospital, can seem worryingly Third World - overcrowded, under ventilated and grubby. A & E departments, the last time I had occasion to use them, lacked a proper triage system. The public lavatories were a serious health risk, with only the most perfunctory efforts made to keep soap and drying facilities topped up.

I haven't been inside a Greek hospital since last autumn, obviously pre Covid 19, so I don't know how they are dealing with the arrival of potential virus-infected patients. I imagine there is a good efficient system in place for identifying and cordoning them off immediately. If so then given the scarcity of patients in Crete I am sure it worked perfectly.

But the overall lack of hygiene, and what can be a cavalier attitude to possible infection on the part of a population which has been very little affected by the virus...I am afraid make Crete very vulnerable to the arrival of incoming tourists using the hospitals.

[Joan]

We're in the same boat as those in Southend, Maud. The sea-front immediately in front of our flat is a complete no-go area, has been for ages, but over the bank holiday weekend it was crazy. We haven't been there for weeks.

Re that idiot Cummings, we did enjoy the Metro headline the next day: "Stay elite"!

Joan