Greek PM inaugurates 50-bed ICU unit

ATHENS, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis urged the public to remain vigilant on Monday as the country is facing the second wave of the novel coronavirus pandemic this autumn and is boosting its national healthcare system ahead of the winter.

"The next months will be crucial and we are very well aware that if we do not pay attention, the health system will come under great pressure," he said, as he inaugurated a new 50-bed intensive care unit (ICU) at Sotiria General Hospital for Thoracic Diseases in Athens. The unit was built with an eight-million-euro (9.4 million U.S. dollars) donation made by the Greek parliament.

"It is certainly a huge relief for all of us that next month we will have a significantly increased number of ICU beds. However, it is not only infrastructure but people who save lives. I would like to say a big thank you to all people working (in the healthcare system)," national broadcaster ERT quoted Mitsotakis as saying.

The number of ICU beds per 100,000 population in Greece will reach the European Union (EU) average by the end of 2020, Mitsotakis said, pledging also to hire more medical and nursing staff if necessary.

In January, Greece had 5.5 ICU beds per 100,000 people, he noted, while the EU average is 12.

In recent months, the government -- assisted by donations -- has increased the number of ICU beds nationwide and hired some 6,500 people to address the COVID-19 challenge.

Last Friday, the Hellenic National Public Health Organization (EODY) announced a new daily high of 508 confirmed infections. On Monday, 438 new COVID-19 cases and 11 deaths were registered.

Greece now has 25,802 confirmed infections and 520 deaths. Currently, 85 patients are hospitalized in ICUs, while 258 people have been released from there.

As the world is struggling to control the pandemic, countries across the globe -- among them European Union member states, China, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States -- are racing to find a vaccine.

According to the website of the World Health Organization (WHO), as of Oct. 19, there were 198 COVID-19 candidate vaccines being developed worldwide, and 44 of them were in clinical trials. (1 euro = 1.18 U.S. dollars)