More jabs arrive, vaccinations for over 20s to begin
THE government will start offering Covid-19 vaccines to adults aged 20 and over from Tuesday onwards, Health Minister Ünal Üstel said yesterday.
This week Turkey sent another 50,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine — in two deliveries of 24,000 and 26,000 — to the TRNC following a visit by Mr Üstel to Ankara, where he meet with his counterpart Fahrettin Koca and Turkey’s Vice President Fuat Oktay.
Speaking during a TV interview yesterday following his return to North Cyprus, Mr Üstel said that Turkey will now send regular consignments of 50,000 vaccines a week to the TRNC.
This will allow the country to
increase its current vaccination capacity of 10,000 a week five-fold and begin offering jabs to all adults aged 20 and over, he said.
Vaccination centres could stay open until midnight to keep up with demand, the minister added.
He also said that those who have already had two doses of the Sinovac vaccine will be offered a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine eight months after their last jab.
During his visit to Turkey, Mr Ünal noted that “it is extremely important to provide a large amount of vaccine in order to inoculate 70 percent of the country quickly, within a certain schedule, and to pave the way for the country’s economy, until the [vaccination programme] drops to people aged 20 and over”.
“With the vaccines planned to be delivered to our country every week, the efforts will accelerate to reach the targeted rate by the end of July,” he stressed.
The announcements came after Mr Üstel earlier this week urged people to continue to obey social distancing and mask wearing rules to avoid a new rise in Covid-19 cases and “another lockdown”.
He issued the warning after he said his department had received numerous complaints about non-compliance of Covid rules at restaurants, cafes, bars and weddings.
“To avoid another lockdown and a rise in the number of Covid-19 related deaths, we need to be sensitive towards the rules as a society and make some sacrifices today to save tomorrow,” he said.
He added that as the Health Ministry picks up the pace of its vaccination programme, the public should continue to adhere to the rules “without becoming complacent” during the summer months.
On Wednesday, 45 new positive Covid-19 cases were detected from roughly 10,500 tests, up from 37 new cases on Tuesday and 25 on Monday, when test numbers were lower.
On Thursday, 28 new cases were recorded from 9,640 tests.
Yesterday, a 57-year-old male became the 35th Covid-19 positive patient to die in North Cyprus, the Health Ministry announced.
The patient also had “diabetes, blood pressure, end-stage renal failure (dialysis) and coronary artery disease” a statement said.
He had been receiving treatment in the intensive care unit of the pandemic hospital since May 27.
Teachers in the TRNC started to receive their allocated single-dose Johnson & Johnson jabs on Wednesday and the vaccination of workers in sectors “such as tourism, higher education, municipalities, customs [and] public transport” is also planned to take place soon, Dr Üstel stated.
Teachers who work in primary, general secondary education and vocational technical schools and who had not yet been vaccinated because of their age group are being inoculated with J&J vaccines sent by the EU last week to South Cyprus that are due to expire on July 13.
Health Ministry Undersecretary Dr Deren Oygar said that vaccinations are currently being offered to the 40-year-old age bracket in areas outside Lefkoşa and that, before the latest 50,000 vaccines were dispatched, the vaccines sent to date mean that 35 per cent of the population will be vaccinated.
Environment and Tourism Minister Fikri Ataoğlu said that “the button for the vaccination of tourism sector [workers] has been pressed” and that the entire sector will be vaccinated in a short amount of time.