ATHENS — Distribution of free Covid-19 antigen self-testing kits has been extended to all 11,000 pharmacies throughout the country on Friday, while the first kits are reserved exclusively for high school students aged 16-18 and teachers, ahead of the opening of upper highschools (lyceums) next week.

A total of 700,000 tests have reached pharmacies so far.

Two million tests have been delivered, with another seven million due to be delivered by the end of next week.

The test is given upon presentation of a valid AMKA social security number and, together with the self test kit, recipients are given written instructions on the correct taking of the sample.

The registration of self tests per AMKA is done in real time to avoid the phenomenon of multiple tests being handed out by different pharmacies to the same person. Self tests are rapidly detectable nasal-swab tests (using a nasal instead of nasopharyngeal / oral pharyngeal sample), performed at home and do not require the supervision of a health professional.