ATHENS – Mass vaccinations will allow us to regain control of our lives, pointed out Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during his visit at the new coronavirus MEGA-vaccination center at Peristeri in Athens on Saturday.

In view of its immediate opening on April 1, the premier said the new center will cover the inoculation needs of the entire west Attica region, and added that the country's national vaccination program codenamed "Eleftheria" (Freedom) is unfolding according to plan.

The prime minister underlined that he has personally exerted great pressure on pharmaceutical companies to meet their vaccine delivery commitments, and he added that the European Union should use all means in its disposal to ensure European citizens receive the vaccines these companies have agreed to deliver.

Greece's national health system has endured and will endure through the pandemic, he said, with the private health sector and military hospitals contributing to the struggle; they are all helping the country reach mass immunity, which is the visible target, he noted.

All citizens over the age of 60 who wish to be inoculated will have been inoculated by the end of April – beginning of May, he stressed, along with those who suffer from serious underlying health issues.

After personally thanking the center's medical and administrative staff, Mitsotakis said some 1,700,000 vaccine doses will have been administered by the end of March.

Health Secretary General for Primary Health Care Marios Themistokleous, who accompanied Mitsotakis on his Saturday visit to Peristeri, said that Greece has now surpassed 1.5 mln vaccinations, while April will see more vaccines arriving: at least 1.5 mln doses from Pfizer and 600,000 doses from another three pharmaceutical companies. The single-dose vaccine by Johnson & Johnson is also expected in mid-April, he added.

Another 272 new vaccination centers will soon be launched, he said, reaching 1,073 centers nationwide.

The Peristeri mega-vaccination center can inoculate 1,200 citizens per day in the month of April and can reach approximately 30,000 vaccinations during that month, but can go up to 139,776 vaccinations per month across its 96 vaccination spots.