Greece's vaccination drive continues in Athens

Greece's vaccination drive continued as normal on Friday after experiencing a small number of cancellations related to concerns over the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Marios Themistocleous, general secretary at the ministry of health, said they observed a "full normalization" with the daily turnout for vaccinations returning at 97-98 percent.

Earlier this week Greece announced that it would not suspend vaccinations with the AstraZeneca vaccine, with the country's National Vaccination Committee saying it had examined the issue and found no reason to change its original recommendation to use the shot.

Several countries had suspended their vaccination drives with the AstraZeneca vaccine as a precaution but resumed it on Friday.

The suspensions came after reports of blood clots in some recipients of the vaccine, even though international health agencies urged governments to press ahead with the shot, saying the benefits far outweighed the risks.

On Thursday, the European Medicines Agency said that the vaccine doesn’t increase the overall incidence of blood clots, though it could not rule out a link to a small number of rare clots.