Takeup for updated Covid vaccines lagging
Just two out of 10 people aged 60 years and older have had their second booster dose of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in Greece, according to Health Ministry data.
The slow pace has been attributed to the prevalence of a general sense of relaxation regarding Covid-19, despite clarifications by health experts and scientists that the pandemic is not yet over.
This complacency appears to have been further driven by a very large summer pandemic wave and a large proportion of the population getting ill. This led to more immunity and as a result many people did refrained from getting a second booster shot (or fourth dose).
This attitude is not only confined to Greece since, according to the most recent data from the European Center for Disease Control (ECDC), just 17.8% of EU citizens aged 60 years have got a second booster dose.
According to the latest Greek Health Ministry data, 681,776 second booster doses (6.5% of the general population) had been administered by Monday. Of these, 586,456 were for citizens over 60 years old (19.1% of this population).
The arrival of the updated vaccines seems to have increased the interest of people, as at least 150,000 vaccinations for the fourth dose have been administered since September 13, which is the date on which the administration of vaccines against the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 started.
