The swine flu infected cases in Greece are not over 220 and virus carriers are no longer only people from Great Britain and the US but also local. The vaccination of at least 4 million people will start from the beginning of October, because then the vaccine will be available.

Priority will be given to children above one year old, students, people under 30, elders over 60 and patients with chronic diseases or serious health problems. One of the first ones, who will be vaccinated, will be doctors, nurses, all hospital staff members and people working with birds.

As the Greek health minister Dimitris Avramopoulos said yesterday, the virus of the new flu is spreading and in the next 3 months, it is expected that 33% of the population will be infected. In case the flu is extremely contagious and spreads fast, the percentage of the infected population can exceed 54%. The minister did not exclude the possibility of death cases.

The pandemic period will continue between 12 and 15 months, when the longest it can continue to is two years, added Mr. Avramopoulos. The swine flu vaccines will be available between October 08, 2009 and February 2010.

The Health minister said that public schools and institutions will be closed only if the virus mutates. “The basic cure for the flu is still hospitalization and home rest, drinking a lot of liquids, so that the organism does not dehydrate and the use of analgesics and medicines for lowering fever.”

Finally the minister added that what is mostly needed is “to be calm and not to panic” and he stressed that people need to keep some personal hygiene, to avoid crowded places and not to get in touch with people with flu symptoms, who are coughing or sneezing.

After yesterday’s 26 new swine flu cases, the number of infected people in Greece increased to 222, out of whom 93 are completely cured. 22 are a mystery of how they got infected, which shows that the new virus will transfer onto the population. Out of all infected people, 78% have travelled and most of them are younger people under 30 years old. It is interesting to note that Greece and Chile started reporting swine flu infection cases at the same time but in Chile, where right now is winter, the infected people are 8 494, out of whom 16 have passed away.