Medical specialties

The World Health Organization has tailored its Covid-19 vaccination recommendations for a new phase of the pandemic, suggesting that healthy children and adolescents may not necessarily need a shot but older, high-risk groups should get a booster between 6 to 12 months after their last vaccine.

A joint operation between the police's drug unit in Athens and its security division in Kalamata, southern Greece, had led to the dismantling of a drug racket worth at least 350,000 euros, the Hellenic Police (ELAS) said in a press release on Tuesday.

Two hundred and fifty-five cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Bulgaria in the last 24 hours, 56.86% of them are among unvaccinated people, according to the data published in the Unified Information Portal. The dead are two, neither of whom was vaccinated.

With this, the total number of victims of the pandemic in Bulgaria reached 38,250.

A fire broke out at a hospital in Istanbul's Üsküdar district late at night on March 24, claiming the life of one patient in the intensive care unit.

The fire suddenly broke out in the surgical block of the Sultan Abdülhamit Han Training and Research Hospital and claimed the life of an intensive care patient in serious condition, a statement by the Istanbul Governor's office said.

The National Organization for Public Health (EODY) announced on Thursday that a total of 75 Covid-19 related deaths were recorded between March 13 and March 19, while intubations eased to 71. The rate of new intubations over that period was 36% less than the average in the previous four weeks.

The number of registered new cases of COVID-19 for the last 24 hours is 150, 57.33% of them are among unvaccinated people, according to the data published in the Unified Information Portal.

2,592 tests were performed to detect them, which means that the proportion of positive tests is 5.787%.

In the wake of the February 28 railway disaster at Tempe that killed 57 people, thousands of people volunteered to donate blood. The amount collected within a week was almost double the usual intake, the National Blood Donation Center (EKEA) announced.

Q: When spring comes around, I never know if my lack of energy is a result of allergies or something else. How can you tell the difference?

"At the moment, we are not in an emergency situation regarding the spread of chicken pox and scarlet fever," reported the Regional Health Inspection (RHI).

However, a report from the RHI website shows that in the same week in 2019 and 2020, the spread of scarlet fever was 25 and 19 cases. For the same week in 2023, they were 151, reports the National Radio.

Around 10% of Greece's adult population suffers from some form of kidney disease, with 10% of that contingent having a serious problem that may have been averted at an earlier stage, the Hellenic Society of Nephrology (ENE) said on Thursday - World Kidney Day - urging greater awareness and more thorough preventive testing.