Does tourism affect the long term course of COVID-19 pandemic in a country of destination? Evidence from a popular Greek island in 2020 where control measures were implemented.

Greece opened its points of entry on July 1, 2020, with specific guidelines for travellers arriving by sea, air or land. The aim of this article is to examine the effect of tourism on the long term course of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic during the pre-vaccination era (June to December 2020) on the popular Greek island of Crete. To achieve this, a cross-sectional serosurvey, repeated at monthly intervals, was conducted to compare the seroprevalence in Crete with seroprevalence in the mainland of Greece. Crete welcomed nearly 2,000,000 travellers during the 2020 summer season. Left-over serum samples were collected and obtained from public and private laboratories located in Greece, including the island of Crete. These samples were tested for the presence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies. A total of 55,938 samples were collected, 3,785 of which originated from Crete. In Crete, the seroprevalence ranged between 0% (June 2020) and 2.58% (December 2020), while the corresponding seroprevalence in Greece was 0.19% and 10.75%, respectively. We identified 4.16 times lower seropositivity in Crete (2.58%) in comparison with the mainland of Greece (10.75%) during December 2020. Moreover, the monthly infection fatality rate (IFR) in Crete was calculated at 0.09%, compared with 0.21% in mainland Greece for December 2020. The island of Crete presented more than four times lower seroprevalence than the mainland of Greece, despite being a highly attractive tourist destination. This evidence supports the idea that tourism may not have affected the long term course of the COVID-19 pandemic in Greece. However, due to contradicting results from previous studies, further investigation is needed.

Remote virtual regulatory inspections of facilities and practices utilising ionising radiation and MRI installations during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Covid-19 pandemic imposes crucial social distancing rules and restriction measures; therefore, the access to facilities and sites, in order to perform on-site inspections, became difficult or not feasible. Greek Atomic Energy Commission (EEAE) adopted remote virtual inspections (RVIs) of facilities and practices applying ionising radiation and magnetic resonance imaging installations, in order to continue discharging its regulatory duty of inspection, effectively. This study presents the experience gained and lessons learnt from the implementation of the RVIs and explores the RVIs perception by the stakeholders. Moreover, the effectiveness and the capability of RVIs to identify 'findings', is assessed by comparing the on-site and the remote inspections outcomes. The presented study showed that RVIs could not replace the on-site inspections, entirely; however, they could support and contribute to the inspection activities and program, in certain circumstances. RVIs were proven to be a valuable tool for the inspection of procedures, documents and records as well as the design and operational conditions of the facilities. The performance of remote verification tests and measurements, although feasible, was challenging, due to the technical issues needed to be resolved in advance. The comparison between remote and on-site inspections outcomes showed that both inspection options had similar capability to identify 'findings', indicating the validity of the RVIs as an inspection methodology in certain inspection thematic areas. The perception of the RVIs was positive and the added value and usefulness was acknowledged by the inspected facilities' personnel and the EEAE's inspectors, although the latter mainly considered RVIs as complementary and supportive to the on-site inspections.

Are obesity indices derived by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry capable of identifying postmenopausal females with high risk for coronary heart disease?

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to evaluate the predictive ability of obesity indices derived by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) regarding coronary heart disease (CHD). METHODS: DXA total body scans were performed on 71 consecutive postmenopausal women who were referred for myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI). Twenty-four women with CHD diagnosed by MPI were considered as cases, whereas the remaining 47 women with normal MPI results were considered as controls. Biochemical markers, body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) were also recorded for all women and correlated to DXA adiposity indices. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed to evaluate the ability of DXA and anthropometrically obtained obesity indices on predicting CHD. RESULTS: Participants with CHD were found to have increased fat mass in the trunk (P < 0.01), in the android area (P < 0.01), and in the total body (P < 0.05) in agreement with the anthropometric indices WC (P < 0.01) and BMI (P < 0.05). Strong correlation was observed between BMI and fat mass in total body (R = 0.835), trunk (R = 0.731), and android (R = 0.796) and between WC and fat mass in android (R = 0.713). DXA-derived central fat indices were found to have higher potential for identification of individuals at high risk for CHD than BMI and WC but differences were not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: DXA central fat indices were found to have the power to identify individuals with CHD; however, the superiority of DXA indices over the commonly used anthropometric indices (BMI, WC) in identifying women with CHD did not reach statistical significance.