Coronavirus: First batch of vaccines sent to the north (Updated)

A total of 1,080 Pfizer vaccine doses were delivered to the Turkish Cypriot community on Monday morning through the bicommunal technical committee on health.

The vaccines are part of the total amount the EU has reserved for Cyprus.

Greek Cypriot co-chair of the technical committee on health Leonidas Phylaktou delivered the vaccines to his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Cenk Soydan at the Ayios Dhometios crossing point.

The 1,080 are the first dose for the same amount of people in the north. The second doses are scheduled to be delivered next month. The second dose was not delivered on Monday as the vaccines need to be stored at minus 70 degree Celsius at all times, making the transport of the whole batch difficult.

Phylaktou, when asked about the overall number of doses to be given to the Turkish Cypriot community, said the Republic and the health ministry had included the needs of the Turkish Cypriots in the vaccination planning as they were formulated through the technical committee on health. The committee, he said, has carried out several processes to enable the first delivery of vaccines on Monday.

Soydan said they have requested 400,000 doses but there has not been a clear response yet as to the final number that will be delivered.

The ministry of health announced when vaccines were first ordered it had asked for 1.2 million vaccines to also cover the needs of the Turkish Cypriots.

He said the Pfizer vaccines would be administered within the next five days.

Vaccinations in the north started on Friday after the arrival of 20,000 doses of Chinese Sinovac’s vaccines, sent from Turkey.

Soydan said that they have started vaccinating health professionals and people over 65.

The UN welcomed the delivery of the vaccines.

“This is a positive development, building on the ongoing exchange of information of this technical committee, and signalling a welcome increase in cooperation between the two sides in their efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic on the island, for the benefit of both communities,” it said.

Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar said last week that unless the vaccines were delivered directly via the EU and not through the Greek Cypriot side, they would not accept them them. Following the backlash in the north, he changed tack, saying the vaccines were a health, not a political issue.