Pirea Port-authorities have strengthened the medical control because of the numbers of tourists using the port daily. Today, a passenger ship from Italy arrived at Pirea Port with six people infected with the swine flu virus on board. The ship came from Italy but it is sailing under Bahamian flag. The ship is expected to leave for Kushadasi, Turkey.

The national council for the new virus prevention is having a meeting this week in order to decide if the beginning of the school year should be postponed due to the immense dispersion of the new flu, or start as usual, on September 1. For now, the council has advised the Minister of Health to approve the usual opening of kindergartens- September 1 for the public ones and August 17 for the private. There hasn't been reached a decision regarding schools yet.

The list with vaccination centers in the country is expected to be ready by the end of the month. Between 140 and 150 is the expected number of centers in Athens and Thessaloniki. "The anti-flu drugs will be sold in pharmacies but only with a prescription," said the Minister of health yesterday, after a meeting with the prime-minister Karamanlis.

At the end of the previous week the Ministry of Health removed the moratorium on flu-medicines but set strict rules about their selling- only with a doctor's prescription and with serious symptoms present. Fear of the infection caused intensive buying of anti-flu medicines which currently cannot be found in Athens most pharmacies. Greek authorities announced that already over a thousand people in the country are infected with the swine flu. A free of charge vaccination of the entire population is being prepared. 24 vaccines have been ordered and they are expected to arrive in the middle of September. Up to date data shows that the number of worldwide cases has reached 162,000 and the deceased are 1,154. In Greece 1002 got contaminated with the H1N1 and 95% of them have been successfully healed. Currently, there are two patients with complications being treated in a hospital.

Dilyana Ivanova