ATHENS – After a former deputy health minister demanded preferential treatment for a friend being treated for COVID-19 in a hospital – which had been approved by a health panel – antibody infusions will be given to more.

The Health Ministry has broadened the criteria for eligibility to get the potentially life-saving monoclonal antibody infusions  to all patients over the age of 65 and those with more common health problems such as obesity and diabetes, said Kathimerini.

Greece acquired 2,000 of the treatments in late November and by Dec. 27 had given them to 190 patients, with 230 more pending approval from committees which review applications to vet those most needy.

Any doctor treating a COVID-19 patient can apply for the treatment, regardless of expertise, as long as the result of a negative PCR molecular test is appended to the online application, the report said.

The treatment is believed to lower the chances of becoming seriously ill from COVID by at least 80 percent in some cases but was first reserved for patients with serious conditions such as chronic renal, liver, heart and lung disease.

With so many treatments available, it wasn’t said why it wasn’t being given to all 629 patients on ventilators in public hospital Intensive Care Units (ICUs) fighting for their lives.

Pavlos Polakis, a heavy-smoking anti-vaxxer surgeon forced by SYRIZA party leader Alexis Tsipras to take the COVID-19 shots warned that “all hell with break loose,” if the treatment wasn’t approved for his friend.

It was, apparently without his knowing, as Health Minister Thanos Plevris said the government wouldn’t bend to threats and would leave it up to the health panels to decide who gets it.