General practitioners are reporting serious shortages of flu vaccines for children, young people, and pregnant women.
The President of the Association of Familyand General Practitioners, Mary Avraamidou, stated on the Alpha Kalimera program that the Ministry of Health has already supplied medical offices with flu vaccines for people over 60 years of age, and the vaccination process has already begun. At the same time, he said he was unaware of the quantities ordered by the Ministry of Health for the remaining age groups and noted that last year, supplies for people over 60 had run out.
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Ms. Avraamidou explained that the delay in the arrival of the vaccines is due to the manufacturing plant located abroad, while many European countries are facing similar problems. For example, Slovenia has postponed its flu vaccination program until November in order to secure the required quantities of vaccines.
“The company has informed us that we will receive them in the coming weeks—hopefully by the end of October.”
As he noted, the flu season in Cyprus begins in the second half of December, despite the fact that some cases have already begun to appear, mainly among people who have traveled abroad. Dr. Avraamidou advised the public to exercise particular caution and to follow personal hygiene measures to protect against viruses.
She also noted that cases of COVID-19 have resurfaced over the past three weeks, despite the fact that there had been virtually no cases over the past six months.
“At least in my own practice, the cases were very, very isolated. Over the past two or three weeks, we’ve started seeing 2–3 COVID cases every week.”
