ATHENS, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Vaccines adapted to fighting the latest Omicron variants of COVID-19 are now available in Greece, it was announced on Monday.
The two mRNA-type updated vaccines of Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna will be administered as booster shots starting from Sept. 14, to individuals meeting priority criteria set by the National Vaccination Committee, officials told a press briefing with Greek national broadcaster ERT.
Priority individuals include people over 60 years old, patients with immunosuppression or suffering from serious chronic illnesses, and healthcare personnel and staff in retirement homes.
The updated vaccines are "more effective" in fighting the Omicron subvariants such as Omicron BA.1, Omicron BA.2, and Omicron BA.5, head of the Vaccination Committee Maria Theodoridou told the press briefing.
"To date, a total of 21,350,000 doses of vaccines have been administered in Greece. More than 7.6 million people have completed their vaccination. More than 5,845,000 citizens have received booster shots," Primary Care Health Secretary General Marios Themistocleous said.
Several restrictive measures against COVID-19 have been relaxed in Greece since the spring, and the number of new infections decreased during the summer, according to official weekly data. A total of 40,100 new cases and 180 deaths were recorded in the period between Aug. 29 and Sept. 4, according to the latest figures.
