Health Ministry: Monkeypox vaccines to arrive Saturday (Updated)

Monkeypox vaccines are expected to arrive in Cyprus on Saturday, the health ministry announced.

A day after relatives of the first confirmed monkeypox case complained the health ministry was unprepared to deal with the viral disease, its spokesman Constantinos Athanasiou said the European Union might send the vaccines to the country earlier than expected.

The shipment of some 1,260 doses is due on Saturday, the ministry said later in the day.

Athanasiou told the Cyprus News Agency that as part of the actions by the health ministry to secure some doses of the jab, there is an indication that the process from the EU vaccine sharing mechanism will be accelerated.

The health minister, the spokesman added, had also contacted other countries who responded positively, but they were waiting for the response by the relevant EU body.

Meanwhile, the condition of the 40-year-old man who is treated at the Nicosia general hospital with monkeypox symptoms is considered good and is being monitored, Athanasiou said.

But the mother of the patient complained to the media on Thursday that her son’s condition is worsening and how the only medication he was given was antibiotics. In response, the ministry had said it is following the same protocol with other European nation.

“We do not accept any criticism that Cyprus did not act to have vaccines and medicine as no other country has vaccines and medicine available,” the ministry’s spokesman had said.