Barely 108 Covid-19 deaths for a population as large (but much less dense) than ours. The key ? Strict, early confinement to counter Greece’s notorious weaknesses: an aging population and a health care system much less solid than ours. And yet …
In the small game, to practice with caution, comparisons between countries, there is one that often escapes the analogy with our Kingdom: Greece. However, in Europe, it is a nation which has a number of inhabitants very close to ours (10.8 million Greek residents against 11.4 million in Belgium). Of course, given the much larger (and mountainous) territory of the Hellenic Republic, the population density is much lower there than in Belgium (80 inhabitants per km2 in Greece, compared to more than four times more here), or , we know that it is an accelerating element of contamination.
But, in parallel, Greece was investigating many weaknesses, on paper, before facing the Covid-19.
First, it is, just behind Italy, the country with the oldest population in Europe . According to the most recent European statistics available, 21.8% of Greeks are aged 65 or over. In Belgium, we are at 18.7%, just below the European average. Italy is the country, with 22.6% of seniors, which most justifies the nickname of the Old Continent. Greece is a territory, unlike Belgium, which sees its total population decrease, and which very clearly has more people aged 65 or more than children under 15 (21.8% against 14.4 %).
Deuzio, the healthcare system in Greece is much weaker than ours . The low number of beds available in intensive care (only 567, almost four times less than Belgium), a consequence of austerity policies and a cut health care budget, was thus an indicator which aroused all concern.
But despite these obvious cracks in the theoretical shell to face the Covid-19, to which we could add the migratory pressure imposed by Erdogan, Greece today displays a balance sheet, which is brought daily at 6 p.m. (5 p.m. here) live on television Sotiris Tsiodras, director of the Greek committee for infectious diseases, exceptionally positive. According to official statistics, Greece registers only 2200 confirmed cases of contamination with the new coronavirus. And at this stage only deplores 108 deaths linked to it. Figures which, as in Belgium, are also decreasing with regard to new contaminations and hospitalizations. In Belgium, we speak, as a reminder, of almost 40,000 proven contaminations for 5,828 deaths. Respectively 20 and 50 times better than the Belgian balance sheet, therefore.
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