Schools in Greece to reopen from Jan 10 as daily Covid cases hit new high

Schools across Greece will reopen on Jan. 10 as planned under strict health protocols, the government said on Tuesday, as the number of daily confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country hit a record high.

The National Public Health Organization (EODY) confirmed 50,126 infections within 24 hours. The previous record was registered on New Year's Eve (40,560 cases), while a week ago there were fewer than 10,000 cases per day.

Greek officials said that the returning students and teachers will be required to take more COVID-19 tests regardless of their vaccination status.

More than 70 percent of the new cases in GreecGreece's daily COVID-19 cases hit new record e's five big regions are liked to the highly contagious Omicron coronavirus variant, EODY's President Theoklis Zaoutis told a press briefing on Monday.

The Omicron variant surge is expected to peak quickly and then decline by February, Gkikas Magiorkinis, a professor of epidemiology and a member of the committee of experts advising the Greek Health Ministry on the management of the COVID-19 crisis, told the Greek national news agency AMNA.

Dimosthenis Sarigiannis, professor of environmental engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, told the local SKAI TV that the number of new daily cases may reach 80,000 in the coming days.