Coronavirus: reduction in Pfizer deliveries expected, health ministry says

The health ministry said Friday that that pharmaceutical giant Pfizer would temporarily reduce deliveries to Europe of its vaccine against Covid-19 while it upgrades its production capacity.

A total of 3,510 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine are expected to be delivered to Cyprus on January 18, instead of the 6,825 originally estimated.

The information was officially communicated to the health ministry by the European Commission. The reduction in deliveries is due to Pfizer limiting output so that it can upgrade production capacity to 2 billion vaccine doses per year from 1.3 billion currently.

“The reduction in deliveries will temporarily affect the shipments in the second half of January until the beginning of February, without however affecting the total quantity that will be delivered in the first quarter of 2021,” said the health ministry in a statement.

“The vaccinations scheduled for next week will not be affected, nor the 3,466 appointment slots that will be available on the online portal of Gesy from Monday onwards.”

People booking slots will be vaccinated between January 25 and 29.

“Also, people who have already received the first jab will receive the second one as scheduled,” the health ministry added, as these have been reserved.

Many EU nations say they are receiving lower-than-expected supplies of Covid-19 vaccines and complain of uncertainty over future deliveries, EU officials told Reuters.