Update – 07/09/2021
September 7, 2021
Who we are
Action Digital is a full-service digital agency based in Cyprus offering services in web
As of the latest update by the Greek authorities, the total number of confirmed Covid-19 diagnosed cases in Greece 601,716. 47 new deaths were reported raising the total number to 13,933. The number of patients treated in intensive care units is currently 379. 1,765 new cases were announced yesterday in Greece. 383 of the new cases were found in the Attica region and 204 new cases in the Thessaloniki region.
Greece will be administering a third dose of the coronavirus vaccine to vulnerable individuals as of mid-September, starting with some 285,000 people with compromised immune systems, according to an official announcement on Monday.
The emvolio.gov.gr platform for booking vaccine appointments will open for this particular group on September 14, the president of the National Vaccination Committee, Maria Theodoridou, and the general secretary for primary healthcare, Marios Themistokleous, told the Health Ministry’s daily public briefing.
Booster shots, Theodoridou said, will also be administered to people residing in nursing homes as well as to over-60-year-olds, many of whom may have already started seeing their antibody levels dropping from their first round of shots last winter. “Professionals who have a high exposure to the virus and patients with other chronic illnesses will follow,” she added.
“A sufficient number of vaccines and the preparedness of the system will help the campaign,” she added.
Noting the surge in cases among youngsters over the age of 12, Theodoridou also went on to urge parents to get their children vaccinated, especially in light of the start of the school year. She stressed that vaccination shields children from contracting Covid-19, ensures that they can engage in activities with their peers safely, protects vulnerable members of their households and society at large from infection, and also helps prevent the formation of new virus mutations.
Theodoridou also encouraged pregnant women to protect themselves and their babies by getting vaccinated, pointing to an abundance of evidence of the vaccines’ safety.
For his part, Themistokleous said that 5.78 million people had completed the Covid-19 vaccinations by Monday afternoon, meaning that 55% of the Greek population as a whole and 64.2% of its adult population is protected – still below the European Union average achieved last week of 70%.
Greece has begun administering vaccinations for Covid-19 outside churches in a pilot program recently announced by the government as a means of encouraging more people to get the shots.
Mobile National Health Organization units began administering shots Monday in a church yard in Archanes, a town near the city of Irakleio on the southern island of Crete.
The single-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine was being used, with shots being administered from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. Fifty-two appointments were booked for the first day, but some people were turning up without appointments and were being given the vaccines.
The government announced the program last month, with mobile health care units to administer shots in town squares outside churches, initially in Crete and later expanding to the country’s main cities.
Authorities have been seeking to boost Greece’s vaccination drive with a series of incentives, and have sought the support of the country’s powerful Orthodox Church. Vaccination against Covid-19 has been made compulsory for health care workers in the private and public sector, while certain entertainment venues such as indoor restaurants and bars will be accessible only to those who have a certificate of vaccination or recent recovery from the disease.
“There is no solution to this great danger ravaging humanity other than the vaccines,” said Father Andreas Kaliontzakis, priest of the Church of Virgin Mary outside which Monday’s vaccination drive was taking place.
“It is a one-way-street and as a church we thought that we have to stand with the people,” he said.
Nikos Tzanakis, a professor of pulmonology, was also outside the church for the vaccine drive, which he described as “an act of high symbolism to point out that our church, this great social and spiritual entity of our country, sides with the national efforts for vaccination.”
The church giving its backing was motivation for some to get vaccinated.
Local resident Michalis Vardakis, 73, said he got his shot “because Father Andreas mediated and he is well respected in Archanes, and for the sake of my grandchildren, because I cannot stand to be afraid to hug my grandchildren.”
Vaccines against the coronavirus are freely available in Greece to anyone with a social security number over the age of 12. More than 5.7 million people have been fully vaccinated so far in this country of around 11 million people. According to official health department figures, 90% of the 381 Covid-19 patients intubated in intensive care are unvaccinated.
The country has a total of nearly 600,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 13,800 deaths.
In more detail, the 1,765 new cases detected per Regional Unit:
