ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece’s top medical advisers said on Monday vulnerable groups with underlying diseases should get COVID-19 vaccine booster shots, in a bid to curb a rise in Delta variant infections.
The booster shot with mRNA vaccines, if approved by the government, will be available in the first week of September, the head of the National Vaccination Committee told reporters.
“It will be given four weeks after the second dose in high-risk groups,” Maria Theodoridou said.
People who had undergone transplants or suffered from kidney failure, cancer patients and individuals with compromised immune systems were among the vulnerable groups, Theodoridou said.
In July, Greece recommended COVID-19 vaccination for children aged 12-15 to help protect youngsters and relatives ahead of the start of the new school year in September.
The country reported 2,628 new COVID-19 infections and 34 related deaths on Monday, bringing the total number of infections since the pandemic began to 561,812 and the death toll to 13,422.
Greece, with a population of 11 million people, has so far administered more than 11.6 million first shots. About 63% of the population is fully vaccinated.
It hopes to increase that figure to up to 70 percent by the autumn.
(Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
