Greece urges vaccination against Covid-19, influenza as cases surge

Athens, Jan 11 – The Greek government has urged an increase in vaccination against Covid-19 and influenza amid a surge of fresh cases in recent weeks.

The people “who lost their lives lately were almost entirely unvaccinated”, said Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis during a press conference in Athens.

Out of 1,028 deaths linked to Covid-19 reported since September 2023 across the country, only two were vaccinated, Xinhua news agency quoted data from the Health Ministry.

Of the 90 patients currently hospitalised in intensive care units, only two are vaccinated, the data revealed.

The health system in Greece was still not under significant pressure from hospitalisations.

Therefore, the Ministry has opted to stay with a strong suggestion for the use of protective facemasks mainly in hospitals and not proceed to an announcement of mandatory use of masks or other measures, like the ones introduced recently in other European countries, officials said.

In a country of some 10 million people, only 210,000 have received the latest dose of the vaccine against Covid since autumn 2023, and 2.9 million citizens have been vaccinated so far against the flu down from 3.4 million last year.

Since November last year, Greece has recorded a gradual rise in Covid-19 cases, unseen since the summer of 2022, and a further increase was expected in the coming days, according to ministry experts, due to contamination during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays gatherings.

Greece has reported a total of 6,101,379 Covid-19 cases since the pandemic first erupted in early 2020, with 37,869 deaths.