ATHENS – For those who want them – it won't be compulsory – the first vaccines for COVID-19 that are approved for use will be offered to everyone in Greece by the middle of 2021, government spokesman Stelios Petsas told SKAI TV.

He said the New Democracy government has secured over 25 million vaccine doses through forward contracts signed by the European Commission with pharmaceutical companies, with two doses required for some being produced.

Sinovac Biotech’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine CoronaVac triggered a quick immune response but the level of antibodies produced was lower than in people who had recovered from the disease, preliminary trial results showed, said the news agency Reuters.

The pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna said they had developed vaccines with effective rates at 90 percent and 94.5 percent although some anxiety remains whether they will be safe after being produced so quickly through the pandemic.