The general secretariat for Primary Health Care announced on Monday the vaccination schedule for the age groups 30-49. At the same time, the Greek National Vaccination Committee recommended that pregnant women or those in process to have children should rather have mRNA technology vaccines rather than AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson. The recommendations are until further notice.
However, Greece wouldn’t be Greece, if the platform for ages 30-44 is for AstraZeneca only!
Vaccination schedule
Online platform to make appointments for vaccination open for:
30-39 open April 27
40-44 on April 29
45-49 on May 1
The Johnson and Johnson vaccine will be incorporated in the vaccinations program on May 5.
General secretary Marios Themistokleous said that vaccination of 30-44 will be with AstraZeneca as there are enough doses available.
He added that there are enough appointments for AZ and if one books an appointment on Tuesday can get the vaccination already on Wednesday.
For the age group 45-49 all four vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, J&J) will be available.
The president of the National Vaccination Commitee said that it has been decided that the second dose of AstraZeneca can be administrated earlier before the 12 weeks as originally scheduled. The second dose can be received also after 8 weeks.
AstraZeneca & J&J for pregnant and wanna be pregnant women
The National Vaccination Committee is on hold for AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines for pregnant women and those who are trying to have children either naturally or in vitro.
The President of the National Vaccination Committee, Professor Maria Theodoridou, said after examining all the data from the international organizations, the committee decided to wait for a decision from the competent bodies that study the two vaccines.
However, she appeared reassuring, saying that 99% of the two vaccines are not a problem, even though he latest data are expected.
The National Vaccination Commission has recommended that women who are pregnant or trying to have children be vaccinated with vaccines based on mRNA technology [Pfizer, Moderna] that have been tested on 90,000 pregnant women so far.
Theodoridou noted that if a woman is pregnant and does not know it and in the meantime she was vaccinated with one of the two vaccines, there is no need to worry or terminate the pregnancy.
Vaccination roll out
Secretary Themistokleous said that some 2,870,000 inoculations have been carried out in Greece so far. 2,025,000 citizens having received one dose of a vaccine (19.3% of population), while 845,000 citizens have been administered both doses of a vaccine (8% of population).