Coronavirus: Tatar rejects EU vaccines if delivered via Greek Cypriots

Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar on Wednesday said that unless the coronavirus vaccines reserved for his community are delivered directly via the EU and not through the Greek Cypriot side, they will not agree to receive them.

According to reports in Turkish Cypriot media, Tatar said after a meeting with UN’s special representative Elizabeth Spehar that they discussed the work of the bicommunal technical committees and that he had requested assistance from the UN over the vaccines that have been secured for his community by the EU.

Part of the vaccines reserved by the EU for Cyprus are to be delivered to the Turkish Cypriot side.

Stating that it is the EU that is the community’s interlocutor on this issue and not the Greek Cypriot side, Tatar said that the report presented to them by the technical committee on health on Wednesday stated that the vaccines could be delivered by the Greek Cypriot side. He added that they would not accept this and that these vaccines should be given directly via the EU.

Kibris Postasi, citing information, reported that the first batch of vaccines to be sent to the north will be about 2,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine. The vaccines are expected to be delivered to the north soon, but no exact date was given for this.

The daily reports that, according to a source, the Republic’s health ministry should sort out the delivery within the next few days. The same source also said that an official crossed to the north last week and provided training on the use and maintenance of Pfizer vaccines, the daily reported.

Tatar’s comments provoked strong reaction from social media in the north.

Reports in the north also refer to complaints by relatives of people who were reported to have died of coronavirus, about the way authorities have handled their cases.

A man, whose mother was diagnosed with coronavirus days after being admitted to hospital with other health issues and died on January 8, told Yeni Duzen they found out from relatives their mother had died as the hospital had not notified them.

The man also said that his 81-year-old mother had tested negative when she was admitted to hospital and believes she got the virus while there. Her death was recorded as coronavirus-linked by the Turkish Cypriot authorities.

The daughter of a an 84-year-old man whose death on Tuesday was attributed to Covid-19, said that her father did not die of coronavirus but due to the hospital’s neglect. Media in the north report that the woman said that the hospital staff had not given her father his pills for his heart for 10 days and as a result his heart stopped beating.