Greece starts vaccination of children aged 5-11

Greece will commence vaccination of children aged 5 -11 from 15 December 2021 announced on Monday the Secretary General for Primary Health Care Mr Marios Themistocleous.

Online appointments for this age group will become available on Friday (Dec. 10), and the first batch of vaccines for children will be received on December 13, he added.

In general, 73.2% of adults in Greece have completed inoculation (single-shot or double-shot vaccines), while 650,000 booster-shot appointments have been booked so far, added the health official. That compares with an average of 77.4% of adults fully vaccinated on average in the European Union, he noted.

Also speaking at the briefing, Head of the National Vaccination Committee Maria Theodoridou rejected the view that vaccination effectiveness is lost after three months, and said that the most recent studies show that the booster shot increases the level of neutralizing (or cell defender) antibodies by 20 times.

Last week the committee approved the administration of the third (booster) dose of Covid-19 vaccines after a lapse of only three months, instead of six, after completion of vaccination in adults.