COVID19: Majority 95% of daily cases have not had jab

Cyprus’ vaccination rollout is paying dividends as the overwhelming majority of new COVID-19 cases involve people who have yet to be vaccinated, according to the Health Ministry.

Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou tweeted Friday that 95% of cases reported involved people who have not been vaccinated, while just 5% were vaccinated with at least one dose.

Cases involving fully vaccinated people make up for just 1% of COVID-19 cases.

“Data from the track and trace team show that only 5% of cases are vaccinated with 1 dose, and less than 1% vaccinated with 2 doses! 95% of cases have not been vaccinated. Vaccines protect. We are building the immunity wall,” tweeted the minister.

Ioannou’s intervention comes at a time when Cyprus’ vaccination rollout seems to be slowing down.

On the vaccination rollout, a Health Ministry advisor, Christos Petrou, told daily Phileleftheros that “interest has decreased a lot in recent days”.

“At the moment, we need to focus on vaccinations for all age groups, as we have a very large proportion of adults who have not yet been vaccinated, which makes achieving our goal to reduce transmission in the community harder,” said Petrou.

He noted that “some groups of the population who were vaccinated very early, may need a third booster shot in the autumn…we are far from being done with the pandemic“.

Cyprus has vaccinated 57.6% of the adult population with one shot, and 37.9% are fully vaccinated.

On Thursday, authorities reported another 59 cases (positivity rate 0.16%) and four more deaths.

Since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, 73,055 cases and 371 deaths have been recorded.