1,080 EU Vaccines to delivered to the TRNC on Monday

Over one thousand doses of coronavirus vaccine arrived the TRNC from the EU via south Cyprus on Monday.

A total of 1,080 Pfizer vaccine doses were delivered on Monday morning through the bicommunal technical committee on health. The vaccines are part of the total amount the EU has reserved for Cyprus.

Greek Cypriot co-chair of the technical committee on health Leonidas Phylaktou delivered the vaccines to his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Cenk Soydan at the Ayios Dhometios crossing point.

The 1,080 are the first dose for the same amount of people in the TRNC. The second doses are scheduled to be delivered next month. 

The second dose was not delivered on Monday as the vaccines need to be stored at minus 70 degree Celsius at all times, making the transport of the whole batch difficult.

The Pfizer vaccines would be administered within the next five days.

Vaccinations in the TRNC started on Friday last week after the arrival of 20,000 doses of Chinese Sinovac’s vaccines, sent from Turkey.

In what appears to be a climb down, following President Ersin Tatar’s statement that vaccines from the EU would not be accepted if they were sent via southern Cyprus, the health minister said that people over ages of 65 would be given the vaccine.

Our people should be comfortable and not nervous. We will provide the vaccines and end the vaccination programme by the end of March, Pilli said.