Introduction: As the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic is still ongoing with patients overwhelming healthcare facilities, we aimed to investigate the ability of white blood cell count (WBC) and their subsets, high fluorescence lymphocyte cells (HFLC), immature granulocyte count (IG), and C‐reactive protein (CRP) to aid diagnosis of COVID‐19 during the triage process and as indicators of disease progression to serious and critical condition.Methods: We collected clinical and laboratory data of patients, suspected COVID‐19 cases, admitted at the emergency department of University General Hospital of Ioannina (Ioannina, Greece). We selected 197 negative and 368 positive cases, confirmed by polymerase chain reaction test for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. COVID‐19 cases were classified into mild, serious, and critical disease. Receiver operating characteristic curve and binary logistic regression analysis were utilized for assessing the diagnosing ability of biomarkers.Results: WBC, neutrophil count (NEUT), and HFLC can discriminate efficiently negative cases from mild and serious COVID‐19, whereas eosinopenia and basopenia are early indicators of the disease. The combined WBC‐HFLC marker is the best diagnostic marker for both mild (sensitivity: 90.6% and specificity: 64.1%) and serious (sensitivity: 90.3% and specificity: 73.4%) disease. CRP and Lymphocyte count are early indicators of progression to serious disease whereas WBC, NEUT, IG, and neutrophil‐to‐lymphocyte ratio are the best indicators of critical disease.Conclusion: Lymphopenia is not useful in screening patients with COVID‐19. HFLC is a good diagnostic marker for mild and serious disease either as a single marker or combined with WBC whereas IG is a good indicator of progression to critical disease.

Carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae is responsible for multiple serious infections with high mortality rates. K. pneumoniae carbapenemases (KPCs) are the most commonly isolated carbapenemases worldwide. To study the epidemiological and molecular characteristics of KPC-producing K. pneumoniae (KPC-KP), we conducted a retrospective study at the University General Hospital of Ioannina, Greece. A total of 177 K. pneumoniae clinical strains from the period 2014–2015 were confirmed as KPC producers by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and were further examined for the presence of bla_VIM, bla_NDM, bla_TEM, bla_SHV, and bla_CTX-M genes. Using the amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS) method, we identified the presence of the KPC-2 allele in 130 strains and the KPC-9 allele in 47. Strains from both allele groups belonged to the sequence type 258 (ST258). KPC-9 was responsible for a distinct outbreak, considered part of the broader KPC-2 outbreak. Molecular characterization of selected KPC-KP isolates from the period 2021–2022 revealed their continued presence in our hospital. Comparison of the antimicrobial susceptibility profiles of the two alleles showed a statistically significant increase in minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for ceftazidime (p = 0.03) and higher resistance to amikacin (p = 0.012) and colistin (p < 0.001) for KPC-9 compared to the KPC-2 allele. The two KPC alleles had similar mortality rates. This study demonstrates the heterogeneity of resistance genes in carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae (CR-KP) within a single-hospital setting and underscores the need for immediate containment measures.

Background/Objectives: This retrospective study investigates the prevalence and distribution of HCV genotypes among 233 genotyped patients from the Epirus region of Northwestern Greece from 2014 to 2024. Methods: Genotypes were detected by molecular diagnostic assays, and their association with demographic parameters and viral load was analyzed. Results: The most prevalent subtype was 3a (50.2%), especially among younger and male patients, followed by subtypes 1b and 1a. A statistically significant association was found between genotype and both age and sex, while genotype distribution did not significantly differ by national origin. Furthermore, subtype 6c-I was found only in a non-native case, suggesting a possible introduction of this rare strain. Viral load showed no significant difference by sex, genotype, or age group. A notable decline in HCV cases was documented during the COVID-19 pandemic, underscoring the impact of the public health crisis on HCV diagnosis. Despite the decreasing need for genotyping in the direct-acting antiviral (DAA) era, our findings support the continued molecular surveillance of circulating HCV strains. Conclusions: This is the first study to longitudinally assess HCV genotype dynamics over a full decade (2014–2024) in the Epirus region of Northwestern Greece, capturing trends during the COVID-19 era and documenting the emergence of rare genotypes. It contributes to the evolving knowledge of HCV epidemiology in Southeastern Europe.