Greece offers COVID vaccine booster three months after initial shots

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece will offer all adults COVID-19 booster shots three months after they have had their second vaccine shot or tested positive for the virus, down from six months now, to help protect them from the emergent Omicron variant, officials said on Friday.

The country on Thursday detected its first case of the Omicron coronavirus strain in a Greek citizen on the island of Crete.

Greece's vaccination committee recommended speeding up administering a third dose as it recognised a higher risk of contagion from the Omicron variant and winter temperatures, according to Marios Themistocleous, a health ministry secretary general in charge of vaccination planning.

He said people could start booking time for their booster shots later on Friday.

Some 63% of Greece's 11 million population have been vaccinated so far and the government announced this week it would make inoculation for the over-60s mandatory.

(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Mark Heinrich)