Health authorities yesterday declared that a swine flu vaccine was safe for infants aged between 6 and 36 months, as thousands of citizens continued to visit inoculation centers around the country to get their shots.

As authorities step up efforts to get some 600 of these centers adequately staffed ahead of the launch of the third phase of vaccination on Tuesday, focusing on citizens aged between 18 and 49, experts stressed that parents should bring their babies to get their jabs during the final phase of inoculation, beginning on December 7. More than 46,000 citizens have been vaccinated since November 13 when the government’s inoculation program began.

Eleni Giamarellou, a member of an advisory council for swine flu set up by the Health Ministry, said that inoculation was more important than ever now, as the flu pandemic is expected to peak in the next few weeks. “The current wave of this pandemic will peak just before Christmas,” she said. “What we all need to do now is get inoculated,” she added.

New figures made public yesterday by the Center for Infectious Diseases Control (KEEL) indicate an increase in the rate at which swine flu is spreading with 1,883 new cases being diagnosed with the H1N1 virus over the past week, compared to 975 new cases the week before that. The number of confirmed cases is now 6,120 with 14 fatalities, although most of these patients reportedly had underlying ailments.

A significant proportion of confirmed cases are believed to be pupils at primary and secondary schools across the country where the number of children displaying symptoms of H1N1 has increased dramatically.

Around 600 schools have temporarily suspended classes due to pupils contracting swine flu. Most of these are in Athens, Piraeus as well as in central and northern Greece.