Omicron underlines importance of vaccination, vaccine committee head says
The symptoms of the new Omicron variant of Covid are mild but the cases also include young people in South Africa, National Vaccination Committee chair Maria Theodoridou said on Monday.
At a regular briefing on the pandemic, Theodoridou said that while data on Omicron is still in its early stages, “it appears that cellular immunity – that is, memory cells – shields from most variants.”
She underlined the importance of vaccination, adding that the committee will soon decide on whether to approve vaccination with Pfizer for children aged 5 to 11 years of age. The dosage for children is a third of that for adults and these vaccines are expected to arrive in Greece after December 20.
Speaking at the same briefing, Marios Themistokleous, secretary-general for Primary Health Care in the Health Ministry, said that as of December people will be able to get vaccinated on Sundays. There will be no vaccinations on December 25-26 or on New Year’s Day.
In terms of vaccination rates, Themistokleous said that a total of 7 million first-dose vaccinations have been administered, covering 79.2% of the adult population or 67% of the general population. [AMNA]
