After surpassing 400,000 vaccinations, Cyprus will tweak its online COVD-19 vaccine portal, allowing people to book regardless of age, but only for AstraZeneca, while GPs can also vaccinate the over 20s with AZ.
To speed up the vaccination rollout, Deputy Minister of Innovation Kyriacos Kokkinos said Thursday Cypriots would soon have the option to skip the age queue by booking an AZ vaccine at any time they wish through a new segment on the portal.
According to the Cyprus News Agency, people will be allowed once a week to book an AZ jab without lining up in the portal’s virtual queue.
Meanwhile, the country’s COVID-19 vaccination rollout surpassed the 400,000 milestone on Wednesday, while Cyprus has climbed into the top four of EU states for vaccinations.
According to the Health Ministry, 41.3% of the population eligible for a COVID-19 jab has already been vaccinated with the first dose of the vaccine by May 11 (305,724 people), while 12.8% have completed their vaccination regimen (95,730 people).
Cyprus, according to the website OurWorldInData, is now ranked 4th among the Member States of the European Union in terms of doses per 100 residents.
Authorities have administrated 43.91 per 100 people, above Spain’s (5th) 43.12 and the EU average of 41.16.
However, Cyprus is well behind the leader Malta’s 87.59 doses per 100.
Malta has vaccinated 87.59% of its population with at least one dose and 28.82% with two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Cyprus’ online booking platform stopped for a break on Thursday, allowing for vaccination appointments to be carried out before moving on to people aged 22 to 24 on Friday, from 7.30 am to 5.30 pm.
On Saturday, the portal will open to give people aged 50-55 another chance to book a COVID-19 jab, and Sunday is for people aged 56 to 58.
The Health Ministry said Thursday, people over the age of 20 can book a vaccination appointment for an AstraZeneca jab with their GP. They lowered the age limit from 30 and over.
Up until Wednesday, 25,000 AZ vaccines had been distributed to 254 GPs, with 7,000 people getting their first shot.
