Coronavirus case numbers appear to dropping in Greece, with 262 new infections recorded over the 24 hours between Friday afternoon and 3 p.m. on Saturday. On the country’s death toll were added 46 fatalities.
While numbers of new infections and deaths are quite low compared with those recorded earlier this week Greek health authorities are still worried this could be a result of people not getting tested during the holidays to avoid further isolation.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Greece has had 135,114, infection and 4,553 coronavirus related deaths in total.
If case numbers continue to drop at these levels, authorities will consider reopening schools on January 8, but not retail shops or restaurants.
The government has also published a timetable of the first vaccinations, which will start at 1 p.m. today, Sunday. The first batch of vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioΝTech arrived yesterday morning, by refrigerator trucks through Promahonas, the border crossing with Bulgaria, on the night of Christmas Eve. The vials and are being stored in a highly guarded facility in Athens in special deep-freeze containers, at temperatures between -70 to -80 Celsius.
A nurse and an elderly resident of a retirement home will be the first ones to be inoculated today, according to AP. On 28 December, Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will be vaccinated, too.
The elderly and those with serious underlying diseases will start getting vaccinated in early February with the rest of the population getting inoculated in June. Finally the Ministry of Defense will deliver vaccines to isolated areas on the mainland and in the islands.
