Virology

Planned vaccinations for COVID-19 in Turkey will not be mandatory, the country's health minister has said, adding that however the public will be tried to be persuaded to get injected.

Prof. Yordanka Stoilova: We need to convince the community to return to normalcy

President Klaus Iohannis has announced on Thursday that the vaccination strategy against the novel coronavirus has been approved in the meeting of the Supreme Council for National Defence (CSAT). "In the CSAT extraordinary meeting, we approved the vaccination strategy against the novel coronavirus," the head of state said, after he visited the anti-COVID-19 vaccination centre at Romexpo.

There have been critical opinions concerning the Covid-19 vaccines but I can't agree with them. When commenting on such an important topic as COVID-19, there can be no improvisations. We need to listen to scientists first and foremost because most base their reports on very serious data and we need to take into account global research and global trends, Prof. Dr.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday that bars and clubs will only reopen when vaccines for Covid-19 have been made available, while restaurants and retail stores will open gradually, with many restrictions.

Turkey will be among the first countries in the world to begin vaccinating people for the coronavirus, with the first shipment of vaccines it has purchased to arrive in Ankara sometime after Dec. 11, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Dec. 2. 

Receiving the vaccine for Covid-19 will be "a game changer" for each country that will allow people to gradually return to their normal lives, the WHO's Regional Director, Hans Kluge, told public broadcaster ERT on Wednesday, in a message meant to boost public trust in the new jab.

Covid-19 vaccines could be made available to Greek citizens before the end of the year, government spokesman Stelios Petsas said Wednesday.

Speaking on Mega TV, Petsas said that the government's vaccination program is anticipated to be completed by late June next year.

He said the government will launch a nationwide campaign to fight misconceptions about the vaccine.

Ahead of the arrival of the first doses of the vaccines, possibly even before the end of the year, preparations of public healthcare units for the inoculation of citizens against Covid-19 are in full force, with the Health Ministry Tuesday asking National Health System (ESY) hospitals to indicate which workers will be available to staff these facilities around the country.

She stated that they are monitoring the situation in the whole of Europe, the introduction and relaxation of measures in the EU and beyond, and that they should be guided by that in relation to our situation.