The vaccination portal is accessible on Wednesday once again for people aged 40 – 42, while health authorities have said that they are proceeding with the rescheduling of the 2nd dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Initially Cyprus was offering the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine 12 weeks after the first dose for maximum efficacy, but this was later changed to 8 weeks.
According to a Ministry of Health press release the vaccination portal which is open today for the age group of 40 – 42, will open on Thursday for people aged 70 and over between 07:30 and 17:30 hours, and on Friday and Saturday for the age group 27 – 39.
The Ministry also said that it has already started sending new appointment dates to people who had initially been set to receive the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine 12 weeks after the first dose instead of 8.
A delay in the rescheduling of appointments is due to a delay in receiving the necessary quantity of vaccine doses by the manufacturer, it said.
So far 12,600 appointments for the second dose of the vaccine have been rescheduled, while in the coming days another 25,000 appointments will be changed for the period of up to June 23, the Ministry said.
In the meantime, the positions of the members of a Scientific Advisory Team on the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19 are expected to be submitted today to the Minister of Health.
The team had a teleconference yesterday evening during which they exchanged views on how to handle the specific vaccine and it was decided that each member would submit his or her opinion in writing, as they varied, with a number of experts saying it should be administered only to people over 40, others over 50 – 55 and others expressing the view that Cyprus should continue to follow EMA guidelines on the matter which place no age restriction on the vaccine. CNA sources have said that the most likely scenario seems to be that of placing an age restriction on the vaccine’s use.
