Corfu clinic official dismissed after reports of allowing local man to cut in line

Health Minister Vasilis Kikilias ordered the removal of the manager of Corfu’s Health Centre, after a media report claimed that he allowed a local journalist and media owner to cut in line and get vaccinated.

Kikilias also ordered the governor of the 6th Health District to open an investigation to establish whether the priority criteria set by the National Vaccination Committee had indeed been violated.

According to newspaper Documento, local journalist Dionysis Mamalos, who is also the president of the board of local CorfuTV, was vaccinated on January 29, along with 17 other people, although he did not meet any of the conditions required to receive the jab as a matter of priority.

Responding to the furore in the local community, Corfu Health Centre manager Alexandros Gardikiotis claimed that there was one jab left and “no one” else to give it to.

“On that day, we had one jab left. Normally, we must do it to a person of the medical staff or the Coast Guard, the Army or the Hellenic Police. But no one was interested,” Gardikiotis was quoted as telling local website apocalypseis.com, adding that Mamalos “had expressed a wish” to be vaccinated.

“There is nothing wrong with the issue or scandal… We could not throw away the vaccine,” he said, adding that Mamalos “happened to be there.”