After studying all international and local data, the National Vaccines Commission of Greece revised its recommendations and decided in favor of administering the third dose of the Coronavirus vaccine to all citizens over the age of 18 three months after vaccination. with two doses. This is what the Head of Health of Athens, Marios Themistokleous, indicated at a press conference. So far the booster was given six months apart. The decision follows the identification of the Omicron variant and in the face of winter temperatures that require additional protection, he explained.
Meanwhile, the Omicron variant runs. Covid infections in South Africa have quadrupled since Tuesday, reaching 16,055 in the last 24 hours, while the Omicron variant is spreading. This was announced by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, quoted by the Bloomberg agency. According to a South African study, the risk of reinfection with the Omicron variant is three times higher than previously known ones.
BioNtech founder Ugur Sahin is convinced that an ad hoc serum may be needed to block the incredible pace of the new variant. An alarm at least partially mitigated by WHO data which, in the face of the surge in infections, signals what appears to be a minor aggression of Omicron: “No death has yet been reported” linked to the variant, despite having already reached 38 countries in the world.
What is certain is that the overlap of Omicron and Delta is rewinding the tape of last year’s nightmare and in many European countries a difficult balance is being sought between protection against the new wave and safeguarding economies already put to the test by almost two years of pandemic. Switzerland has tried that, in order not to give up the ski season, which is essential for the country’s coffers, has lifted the quarantine for incoming tourists, doubling however the anticovid tests.
And Great Britain continues to do so which, after anticipating the third dose, despite the 50,584 infections recorded in the last 24 hours, has invited us not to give up the Christmas dinner with friends and relatives. While France (which returned to almost 50 thousand daily infections and over 2 thousand hospitalizations in intensive care), faced with the increase in infections of children who at the beginning of the pandemic appeared almost naturally immune, has cleared the vaccination for those between 5 and 11 years at risk of contracting severe forms of the disease. It will start in mid-December, while in January, explained the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, the vaccination will probably be extended to other children of the same age group in a “progressive and optional” way. Germany, on the other hand, after having decided on lockdowns for the unvaccinated, declared Poland and Switzerland at high risk due to the high number of infections, imposing a quarantine on those who arrive.