Greece will receive the first batch of coronavirus vaccines on December 26, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Friday, adding that the first vaccinations will take place at five Covid-designated hospitals in Athens and Thessaloniki.
At first, Mitsotakis said, vaccines will be provided to healthcare workers and those in long-term care facilities. The jab will then be given to the over-65 population, an estimated 2,4 million, he said.
He said that according to the latest EMA update, approval of the Pfizer vaccine is expected on December 22.
The inoculation of doctors and medical staff at Sotiria Hospital in Athens will begin on December 27, Mina Gaga, director of the hospital’s 7th pulmonary clinic, told Skai radio on Friday.
Gaga said all hospital workers have said they will have the Covid-19 vaccine as soon as it becomes available.
Vaccinations at Sotiria will reportedly mark the launch of Greece’s immunization program, followed by medical staff at Evangelismos hospital also in Athens.
Meanwhile, medical staff from several facilities across the country has posted on social media that they have been asked by health authorities to declare whether they will get vaccinated or not and that they should reply by next Monday, Dec 21. In some clinics the staff was urged to respond within just hours.
They complained that they have no official information about the Covid-19 vaccines neither about which one will be approved and which one will be available in the country.
There was no answer by the authorities also to questions regarding people with allergies.
“Gaga said all hospital workers have said they will have the Covid-19 vaccine as soon as it becomes available.”
Whereas in the Netherlands 87,000 medical professionals have refused the vaccine. https://www.ibtimes.co.in/nurses-no-guinea-pigs-87000-healthcare-workers-netherlands-refuse-covid-19-vaccine-831263