Coronavirus: 8.9% of five to eleven years old vaccinated

Covid vaccinations for children aged 5-11 have reached around 9 per cent, health ministry director-general Christina Yiannaki said on Saturday.

She was visiting the walk-in vaccination centre operating at the State Fair in Nicosia, which was administering vaccines for children.

This is the fifth walk-in organised at the specific location by the health ministry in collaboration with paediatrics society head Michalis Anastasiades and volunteer paediatricians, she said, adding that children in Limassol are now receiving their second dose.

As of around 4pm Saturday, paediatricians had vaccinated around 280 children, with some 300 extra doses administered to other members of the public receiving their first, second or third doses.

Yiannaki said more walk-in centres will operate next weekend in Larnaca, Limassol and Episkopio.

“Children’s vaccinations have reached 8.9 per cent,” Yiannaki said, “a percentage we are happy with, that motivates us to continue our fight on a daily basis”.

Out of the whole population, 74.7 per cent have received the first dose of the vaccine, and 71.1 per cent are fully vaccinated, she said, adding that 84.1 per cent of the adult population are fully vaccinated.

“Our goal at the health ministry is for 75 per cent of the general population to be fully vaccinated, and we believe that through our gigantic efforts we will reach it”.

Yiannaki said that around 6,050 children between the ages of five and 11 have been vaccinated so far, pointing out that walk-in centres administer vaccines daily.

“This means we are seeing a daily increase in vaccinations, which may have fallen with the cold weather, but we do see parents taking their children to the centres”.

Around 56 per cent of children aged 16 and 17 have been vaccinated, as well as 46 per cent of children between the ages of 12 and 15.