Greece begins COVID-19 vaccination with top officials as nearly 10,000 Pfizer vaccines trickle in

With a thumbs up shortly after 1pm today Efstathia Kambisiouli – the head nurse at COVID-19 reference hospital Evangelismos – became the first Greek to receive the Pfizer-Bio-N-Tech vaccine.

A semior citizen at a care home, 88-year-old Michalis Giovanidis was the second,  and he was followed by President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Profeessor of Epidemiology Sotirios Tsiodras and Parliament Speaker Konstantimos Tasioulas coming afterwards.

All party leaders except for the head of the populist nationalist Elliniki Lysi (Greek Solution) party Kyriakos Velopoulos, who is best known for television shows selling supposedly curative herbs and lionising Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The first 45 Greeks to be vaccinated will include top state officials including military top brass,  the ministers and deputy ministers of health and of foreign affairs as well as top brass from the Hellenic Armned Forces, the Hellenic Coast Guard, and Greek Police.

The number of vaccines apportioned by the EU is proportional to the member-state’s population.

Greece, Bulgaria and the largest German federal states each received nearly 10,000 vaccines.

The arrival of the vaccines in country by truck was accompanied by theatrics with life videeo of the vehicles and police escort and initial reports that the vaccines would be stored in a top secret location which the media swiftly revealed was Kryoneri, Attica.

The first batch of the 9,750 doses of the vaccine  arrived in Greece late on Christmas day.

The first group to be vaccinated is the people working at COVID-19 referral hospitals in Attica, including Evangelismos and Sotiria, which have borne the brunt of the crisis in Attica.

The vaccine will be delivered to to referral hospitals tomorrow.

The second batch of 83,850 doses of the same vaccine is expected to arrive by 30 December.

According to the EU’s distribution arrangement the Pfizer vaccines doses that correspond to the Greek population are another 429,000 until the end of January another 333.450 doses by the end of February and until the end of March Greece is expected to have received a total of 1,265,550 doses of Pfizer’s vaccine.