Vaccines in Greece have saved 12,175 lives (11,429 after two doses and 746 after the first dose), preventing an equal number of deaths due to Covid-19, according to a joint study by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention ( ECDC) in 33 countries, including our country.
The deaths due to Covid-19 that have been recorded in Greece at the age of over 60 are reported to be 11,703. The study, published in the Eurosurveillance, estimates that the percentage of expected deaths of people over the age of 60 due to coronavirus, prevented in Greece thanks to vaccines, is 51%, ie vaccines reduced to at least half the deaths that would otherwise have occurred.
This percentage places our country above the average in terms of saving lives thanks to vaccines, in 13th place among the 33 countries in the study (first is Iceland with 93% and last is Ukraine with only 6%). Greece appears to have fully vaccinated (in two doses) 81% of its population over the age of 60 (compared to 100% in Iceland and 29% in Ukraine) and at least 83% in at least one dose.
More specifically, by age group in Greece, the study states:
* At the age of 60-69 (complete vaccination of 82% of the population) there were 2,167 deaths and 1,998 were prevented thanks to vaccines.
* At 70-79 years (full vaccination of 86%) there were 3,481 deaths and 4,250 were prevented.
* In 80 years and over (full vaccination of 73%) there were 6,055 deaths and 5,927 were prevented.
470,000 lives were saved in Europe
In all, according to the study, almost half a million lives – more than 470,000 – have been saved in Europe among people over the age of 60 thanks to vaccinations in less than a year. This estimate does not include the lives saved by vaccines under the age of 60, nor those saved by the indirect protection provided by vaccines because they reduce coronavirus transmission.
“We can now say unequivocally that without the Covid-19 vaccine as a pandemic control tool, many more people would have died,” said Dr Hans-Henri Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe.
From December 2019 until today, more than 1.5 million deaths have been recorded in Europe, of which nine out of ten (90.2%) involved people over 60 years old. The new study estimates that thanks to vaccines from one point onwards (December 2020-November 2021) the number of expected deaths due to Covid-19 was reduced by about half.
In most countries (30 out of 33) most of the lives estimated to have been saved (261,421 in total) were in the age group over 80 years. The study estimates that the largest number of lives were saved in European countries where vaccination started early and from the beginning the emphasis was on the elderly.
As Kluge pointed out, “Vaccines are a marvel of modern science and what the new study shows is that they do what they promised to save lives, offering very high protection against serious illness and death. In some countries, without “Vaccines would be twice as high as they are now. It is therefore absolutely important that all European countries achieve high vaccination coverage for high-risk groups as soon as possible,” he said. preventive measures to keep virus transmission levels low and keep society open. “
“First of all, get vaccinated,” he stressed. “Vaccination saves lives in all age groups. We know that the virus is favored in closed, crowded and limited places and that is why we must also adopt measures that are known to reduce its transmission, especially now that the weather is cold and forcing us. to be closed indoors “.
The link to the scientific publication
Follow Skai.gr on Google News
and be the first to know all the news
.
