COVID19: Cyprus vaccination rollout among best in Europe

Cyprus has accelerated the COVID-19 vaccination rollout placing it in Europe’s top five, as the online appointment platform Wednesday reached people aged 25 to 26, with thousands of jabs booked within minutes.

By 8.15 am, within an hour of going live, 6,550 of the 10,880 appointments made available were booked, the Health Ministry said.

The vaccination portal was operating normally after technical problems were reported on Tuesday.

The portal went live at 7.30 am and will remain open until 5.30 pm.

On Tuesday, the portal catered for 27 and 28-year-olds with 7,545 booked vaccination appointments from the 9,700 available.

Cyprus’ vaccination rollout has picked up speed in recent days as the island’s health authorities close in on 400,000 vaccinations.

The Health Ministry said 38.4% of the adult population had received the first jab of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine, while 11.8% have completed their vaccination.

Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou tweeted figures from Our World in Data for single doses of vaccinations per 100 population, showing Cyprus was fifth among the EU Member States.

Cyprus has administered 42.41 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine for every 100 inhabitants, above the EU average of 40.22.

Leading the table, however, is Malta with 87.59 doses per 100.