ATHENS – Minors are carriers of the Coronavirus and could be a portal for transmitting mutations and variations of COVID-19, said the head of Greece’s National Vaccination Committee, Maria Theodoridou.

She said that’s another reason why they should be vaccinated against the virus that’s still spreading because of rabid anti-vaxxers refusing to be inoculated and the New Democracy government saying they won’t be forced to get the shots.

Theodoridou cited the results of a study in children and adolescents with COVID-19 in Massachusetts in the United States which showed that, according to molecular testing and cultures of respiratory secretions, children can carry high levels of live, replicating SARS-CoV-2 and viral loads are no different to those among adults, said Kathimerini.

With the government recommending booster shots – a third for most people who got a version requiring two initial shots – she said that those who got the single-shot Johnson & Johnson strain from the US should get a second as a booster, saying it increases the effectiveness to 90 percent from 70 percent.

conducted, the administration of an additional jab, which can be done two months after the initial vaccination, increases the effectiveness of the vaccine from 70% to 90%.