Greece expects to receive 300,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine in the first tranche, meaning that 150,000 people will be vaccinated initially, government spokesman Stelios Petsas said on Wednesday. The first doses are much fewer than what the Greek government had planned or thought.
Speaking to Parapolitika FM, Petsas said that the vaccines require two doses per patient.
Petsas said that the immunisation program will be launched in December or January.
The country was expecting 3,000,000 doses for 2021 and Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias had said that the first tranche would be 700,000 doses in December.
Petsas clarified on Wednesday that it is the whole Europe that will initially receive fewer vaccines than originally planned due to the logistics of the manufacturing companies.
The first to get vaccinated in Greece will be health workers.
The government is trying to find ways to locate “vulnerable groups” – except for the age criteria – as there is no registration in the country, not even for cancer patients.
Greece needs to register all its population with a family doctor, as happens in the U.K.
This will enable individual health recovery to to be maintained and for a proper coordinated health plan to be in place for everyone.
I recommend that the Greek government examine the U.K. system and adopt something similar. The use if IT would go a long way to enable such a system.
Anonymised records would help with future health related infrastructure planning by the state.