Viruses are “harvesting” in the country
Community SARS-CoV2 positivity and all hard covid-19 indicators are decreasing. The positivity for flu also recorded a decrease, although it still shows intense activity. In the week of January 15-21 according to his epidemiological report EODY 19 new serious cases of influenza with hospitalization in ICU and 8 new deaths were recorded.
SARS-CoV2 virus – COVID-19 infection
The positivity in all tested samples showed a significant decrease compared to the previous week.
The number of admissions (n=842) showed a 45% decrease compared to the average weekly number of admissions in the previous 4 weeks (n=1,539) and was lower than the number of admissions in the corresponding week of 2023 (n=1,535). The number of new intubations (n=29) showed a decrease compared to the average weekly number of new intubations over the previous 4 weeks (n=32) and was lower than the number of intubations in the corresponding week of 2023 (n=51).
The number of patients with infection COVID-19 hospitalized intubated are 69. 73 deaths were recorded with a median age of 87 years (range 52-97 years). The number of deaths showed a decrease compared to the average weekly number of deaths in the previous 4 weeks (n=101) and was lower than the number of deaths in the corresponding week in 2023 (n=183).
The most frequent sub-variant of BA.2 was JN.1 ranging around 50%, followed by EG.5 (30%). Viral load surveillance in municipal wastewater showed a reduction in SARS-CoV-2 virus circulation in 8 of the 9 areas tested.
Influenza virus
The positivity for flu in the community (sentinel network) remains above 10% (seasonal threshold for initiation of epidemic influenza activity according to ECDC) and showed a significant decrease compared to the previous week.
19 new serious cases with hospitalization in ICU were recorded, while 8 new deaths from laboratory-confirmed influenza were recorded. A total of 85 people with laboratory-confirmed influenza have been hospitalized in the ICU since the beginning of influenza surveillance, and 25 deaths from laboratory-confirmed influenza have been recorded. 235 influenza strains were subtyped from hospital and community sentinel samples, of which 232 (99%) were type A and 3 (1%) were type B. In total, 214 type A strains were subtyped at the two Influenza Reference Centers .198 (92.5%) belonged to the A(H1)pdm09 subtype and 16 (7.5%) to the A(H3) subtype.
Influenza syndromes (regardless of pathogen)
The number of influenza cases per 1,000 visits showed a decrease compared to the previous week.
Respiratory syncytial virus – RSV
RSV positivity in Sentinel PPH samples showed a decrease compared to the previous week.
