Update – 07/12/2021
December 7, 2021
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As of the latest update by the Greek authorities, the total number of confirmed Covid-19 diagnosed cases in Greece 971,148. 116 new deaths were reported raising the total number to 18,716. The number of patients treated in intensive care units is currently 714. 4,943 new cases were announced yesterday in Greece. 1,386 of the new cases were found in the Attica region and 708 new cases in the Thessaloniki region.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis defended the decision to make vaccination against Covid-19 compulsory for people aged 60 or above, stressing that mass inoculation is the only way to keep the economy and society open.
“I am a liberal politician and I do not like the idea of mandates in principle. However, I do believe that we made the right decision, as soon as the Omicron variant – about which we do not yet know much – appeared,” told US broadcaster CNN in an interview on Monday night.
Mandating the obligatory vaccination of people over 60 and setting a 100-euro monthly fine effective as of January 16 was “a last resort,” he explained, but it was a necessary measure for safeguarding public health and the public health system.
“Our policies eventually will be vindicated,” he said.
The latest data on vaccinations, meanwhile, point to the decision already starting to pay off, after a Health Ministry official on Monday confirmed that more than 70,000 appointments for a first dose had been booked since Tuesday last week.
Speaking at the ministry’s regular evening briefing on the course of the pandemic, the general secretary of primary healthcare responsible for vaccinations, Marios Themistokleous, expressed confidence in the pace of take-up, saying it much higher than the 24,000 jabs booked by the over-60s a week earlier.
He did, however, concede that the number of appointments is still small compared to the estimated 500,000 citizens in the 60+ age group who had not been vaccinated before the mandate was announced last week.
Covid vaccines designed for children aged from 5 to 11 will start being rolled out in Greece next Wednesday, health officials confirmed Monday, and parents can plan the jabs – carried out in specialized facilities – on the emvolio.gov.gr platform as of Friday.
Vaccination rates have been picking up in Greece in the past few weeks, with the Health Ministry on Monday saying that more than 70,000 appointments had been booked since last Tuesday in the 60+ age group.
Greece has reported two more confirmed cases of the Omicron variant.
Both cases involve people who recently traveled to South Africa. They are unrelated to the first case of the highly transmissible variant of Covid-19 that was detected in Chania, Crete.
Health authorities are tracing their contacts in a bid to contain transmission.
The online vaccination platform for children aged 5 to 11 years old will open on Friday, December 10, according to the briefing given on Monday by Marios Themistokleous, Health Ministry Secretary General for Primary Healthcare. He stated that the vaccines will arrive in Greece on December 13, with the first doses being administered by December 15.
Last week, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the Pfizer/ BioNTech vaccine for children aged 5 to 11. However, it advised that the doses administered be smaller than the ones given to other age groups. However, as with the other age groups, the vaccine will be administered in two doses with a three-week interval.
Themistokleous also announced that at least 77% of Greece’s adult population has been vaccinated with at least one shot, while 73% of the population has been fully vaccinated.
In more detail, the 4,943 new cases detected per Regional Unit:
