Vaccines

Turkey's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has urged people to get Turkovac shots, the locally developed vaccine against COVICD-19, saying that it is already available in all 81 provinces of the county.

Turkey's three most populous cities, Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir, have seen increases in the weekly COVID-19 cases at varying rates.

The incidence rate, measuring the number of coronavirus infections per 100,000 people, rose slightly to around 895 in Istanbul, which is home to nearly 16 million residents, in the week of Jan. 29-Feb. 4 from 890 between Jan. 22 and Jan. 28.

A very important development for Greek tourism is characterized by the competent minister Vassilis Kikilias, via Twitter, the amendment of the air directive that fully vaccinated travelers from USA, Australia, Canada do not need to show a negative COVID test to travel to Greece.

The Greek Ministry of Health has announced that about 10,000 medics who have not received a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine will have to take two rapid tests a week to work. This will be at their expense, Kathimerini reported.

Health Minister Thanos Plevris clarified that health workers who do not have a booster will not be removed, as is the case with the unvaccinated.

Greece has lifted an additional requirement for a COVID-19 test for vaccinated and post-ill people entering the country, the foreign ministry said. The requirement was introduced on December 19 to delay the entry of the then new variant of the coronavirus Omicron.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has called on the public to avoid complacency and believing that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 causes a milder disease, urging everyone to get their booster shots.

"We are fighting a variant of the virus that spreads rapidly and causes a milder course of the disease. This should not be passed onto you as complacency," Koca said on Twitter.

Tomorrow, Monday, February 7, expires the small extension in the validity of the vaccination certificate, which was given due to the severe weather front that hit Greece. This means that the adults who have completed their vaccination seven months ago, should have taken the booster dose, otherwise from tomorrow they will be considered unvaccinated.

Health Minister Thanos Plevris has announced that vaccinated travellers from abroad will be able to enter Greece solely with the EU Digital COVID-19 Certificate and without a diagnostic test.

"As of Monday, 7 February, entry into the country for those who have a valid EU Digital COVID-19 Certificate will be allowed without a compulsory test," Plevris told ERT state television.

About 20,000 deaths from complications of Covid-19 were prevented by vaccination against the coronavirus infection, according to a new pre-published study by professors Sotiris Tsiodras and Theodoros Lytras, conducted during the period 11 January 2020 - 8 December 2021.

This means that the youngest Americans could start receiving vaccines as early as March.
There are about 19 million children under the age of five in the United States, and they are the only age group that does not yet meet the conditions for vaccination against the coronavirus, AP reports.