On Monday, Greece opened the online appointments booking platform for updated COVID-19 vaccines.
The National Vaccination Committee said that the actual vaccinations, which are effective against Omicron mutations 1, 2, and 5 will begin on Wednesday.
COVID-19 updated vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna
The updated vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna can be administered to people aged twelve or older but are intended only as a booster dose after completing the initial vaccination (two doses for healthy individuals and three for the immunocompromised) regardless of which vaccine was received.
They are administered within three months after the last dose of any vaccine or a COVID-19 infection.
Primary Care Health Secretary General Marios Themistocleous noted that all vaccinations carried out so far in Greece against coronavirus total 21,350,000.
In late August, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the updated boosters that include an mRNA component of the original strain to provide an immune response that is broadly protective against COVID-19 and an mRNA component similar to the omicron variant BA.4 and BA.5 lineages. This provides better protection against COVID-19 caused by the omicron variant.
The BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the omicron variant are currently the result of most cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and are predicted to circulate this fall and winter.
In June, the agency’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee voted overwhelmingly to include an omicron component in COVID-19 booster vaccines.
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