Greece suspends Johnson & Johnson vaccine rollout

Greece has suspended the rollout of the Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine.

The announcement was made by the head of the National Vaccination Committee Maria Theodoridou on Monday.

In the US, six women under the age of 50 developed rare blood clots among more than six million people given the J&J shot so far.

"We should wait for the conclusions of both the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA)," she said.

Theodoridou also cited data according to which 9 in 10 deaths in Greece involved people who had not been vaccinated, while only a small number of fatalities concerned patients who had been vaccinated with both doses of a vaccine.

Following the announcement, Health Secretary General for Primary Health Care Marios Themistokleous said the pause will not have a significant impact on the country's unfolding national vaccination program.

According to him, only a small quantity of this specific vaccine (33,600 doses) was delivered to Greece.

Another 300,000 doses, however, are scheduled for delivery in May, with some 960,000 in June.

Greece is also vaccinating with Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines.

In terms of vaccinations in general, 16.75% of the country's population has been administered at least the first dose of vaccines and 7.45% have received both doses.