Με την ηλεκτρική διασύνδεση Ισραήλ - Κύπρου - Ελλάδας εμπεδώνεται η στρατηγική συνεργασία με τις δύο χώρες και γίνεται ένα σημαντικό βήμα για την ενίσχυση της ασφάλειας και της ευημερίας στην ευρύτερη περιοχή, δήλωσε σήμερα ο Υπουργός Περιβάλλοντος και Ενέργειας, Κώστας Σκρέκας με αφορμή την έγκριση της χρηματοδότησης του έργου EuroAsia Interconnector από την Ευρωπαϊκή Επιτροπή.
The Israel-Cyprus-Greece electricity interconnection consolidates Greece's strategic cooperation with the two countries and is an important step in enhancing security and prosperity in the wider region, Environment and Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas said on Friday, after the European Commission approved the funding of the EuroAsia Interconnector project. According to the decision, the EU will allocate 657 million euros to support the interconnection between Cyprus and the European network, while another 100 million euros will be given under the recovery and resilience mechanism.
Μolnupiravir pills will become available next week to people in high-risk groups aged 18+ who have tested positive with a PCR or a rapid test, Alternate Health Minister Mina Gaga said during a regular briefing on Thursday.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis received JPMorgan Chase & Co. chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon at the Maximos Mansion on Thursday, amid media reports that the multinational investment bank has clinched a deal for 49-percent of Greece-based digital banking and payments provider Viva Wallet.
The Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had a telephone conversation with the new Chancellor of Germany Olaf Solz.
Greece’s main opposition leader, former premier Alexis Tsipras, tabled a “no confidence” motion in Parliament on Thursday morning, accusing Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ center-right government of botching the state’s reaction this week to a heavy snow storm in the country, especially the greater Athens area, as well as failing to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.
The first “victim” of Monday’s stranding of more than 1,000 vehicles on the snow-covered Attiki Odos tollway, a major thoroughfare in the greater Athens area, came a day later, on Tuesday, with the CEO and long-standing board member of the concessionaire company, Vassilios Halkias, tendering his resignation.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday morning offered another apology, on behalf of his government and personally, in the wake of major traffic problems created by an intense – but more-or-less forecast – snowstorm on Monday throughout the greater Athens area.
The Thessaloniki Port Authority (OLTh S.A.) and the General Authority for the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) have signed a cooperation pact, both sides announced this week, one aimed at boosting international trade and their respective commercial activities through the promotion of Eurasia sea transport via the northern Greece port and the supremely important Egyptian passageway.
A tribute to Andros was published by the popular German magazine for hiking tourism, Wandern & Reisen.
The Omicron variant is spreading so fast that surely some people often wonder about the effectiveness of preventive measures.
It is indeed disappointing to hear that Omicron infects people who have been vaccinated or given a booster dose. It seems that in some of us the vaccines against COVID-19 work strongly even against Omicron, while in others the effect is weaker.
A recent study by researchers at Harvard and MIT in Boston, USA, highlighted the spectacular diversity of the human immune system, which is also genetically regulated.
The Doctors of the Therapeutic Clinic of the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Lina Paschou (Assistant Professor of Endocrinology), Theodora Psaltopoulou (Professor of Therapeutic-Epidemiology-Preventive Medicine) and Thanos Aigatopis-Ka. results of this study. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.04.21268586v1
The role of lymphocytes
The researchers took blood samples from 76 volunteers to test for a subset of immune system cells known as T lymphocytes.
The researchers isolated the participants' T lymphocytes and exposed them to various SARS-CoV-2 variants in experimental test tubes. They found that in 4 of 5 people (80%) the vaccine resulted in T cells that functioned just as well against the Omicron mutation compared to other variants. But in 1 in 5 people (20%) T lymphocytes were much less effective against the Omicron mutation, even though they worked well against the original variants. However, it was observed that the booster dose satisfactorily increased the T lymphocyte responses in the Omicron spike.
When our body encounters the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, either after infection or after vaccination, some cells, known as antigen-presenting cells, display portions of the viral protein externally in T lymphocytes.
This process is based on proteins called HLA. Each of us has different genes that encode the HLA complex. Genetic differences, therefore, may contribute to the differences and the immune response. Also, while antibodies decrease over time, T lymphocytes provide a second line of defense, specifically cellular defense, that lasts longer. They are the main cells responsible for the so-called immune memory. Many experts consider them the most critical parameter of our defense against the Omicron variant.
20% have lower protection against vaccines against Omicron
In conclusion, 20% of people have lower protection against vaccines against Omicron due to a less effective T cell response.
But they are still better off than the unvaccinated people, especially those who have received a booster dose.
The optimistic reading of the new study is that 80% of vaccinated people still have a very good immune response to the Omicron variant
The Civil Aviation Authority announced that the flight instructions with the conditions of entry into Greece will be extended until Monday, February 7, 2022.
Nobu Hospitality’s first hotel and restaurant in Greece – Nobu Hotel and Restaurant Santorini – will operate from the spring of 2022. The firm was founded by Nobu Matsuhisa, Robert De Niro and Meir Teper,
Even higher increases in electricity prices would have been paid by consumers in December if it were not for Renewable Energy Sources.