ATHENS 

The number of new COVID-19 cases jumped again in Greece with 2,384 new infections Tuesday after seeing a decline in the two previous days.

From the new cases, 50 were identified at the nation’s entry points, according to health authorities.

Total cases now stand at 60,570 of which 4,510 are related to traveling abroad and 16,382 to already confirmed cases.

The number of intubated patients also remains high and is seeing a steady rise, reaching 263, compared to 239 on Monday.

The National Public Health Organization also registered 41 new deaths, bringing coronavirus fatalities to 866.

Meanwhile, a report by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the city’s Water and Sewage Company, trying to determine the concentration of the COVID-19 genome in the city’s wastewater, found genomes were increasing despite other cities seeing a decline.

"At this stage of the pandemic, the findings do not surprise us. The trend remains upward and reflects the extensive spread of the virus in the community,” the rector of Aristotle University and coordinator of the research team, Prof. Nikos Papaioannou, said in an interview with the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA) on Tuesday.

“When the measures taken start to pay off, the increase will cease to be exponential in the first phase, before the trend stabilizes and reverses to a downward trend. We hope that the measurements in the next two weeks will begin to show this course."