ATHENS – Some 70% of all new infections in Greece’s largest regions relate to the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus, National Public Health Organization (EODY) head Themistocles Zaoutis said on Monday.

During a regular briefing, Zaoutis said in addition that now 70% of admissions to hospitals of Attica, Greece’s most populous region, are also related to Omicron, although he reiterated that compared to Delta, the new variant’s morbidity rate appears lower, as does the mortality rate.

Zaoutis also replied to criticism on EODY’s call center, which is constantly busy, acknowledging it had received an unprecedented number of calls, but saying that this will be upgraded in the next few days, along with better selection of incidents and better citizen service.

Speaking at the same briefing, National Vaccination Committee head Maria Theodoridou said that a total of 8.7 million vaccines had been administered to children aged 5 to 12 in Greece, with mild after-effects including pain, fever, fatigue and headache, particularly after the second dose. Responding to a question, she said that pre-teens and teenagers from 11 to 17 did not need to get booster shots right now, unless they had serious underlying conditions or belonged to vulnerable groups.