Coronavirus: freezers arrive to store vaccine (updated)

Cyprus received the special freezers to store the Covid vaccine on Saturday, the health ministry announced.

The MSC Lausanne commercial ship docked in Limassol port early in the morning with two deep-freezers, each worth €15,000. The ship sailed from the port of Le Havre in France.

The freezers will be used to store the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines at -75C.

They were transferred to Nicosia.

“The vaccines will be stored at a central point and will be distributed to vaccination centres nationwide,” head of the pharmaceutical services Costas Himonas said on Saturday.

According to Himonas, approximately 130,000 vaccines can be stored in each freezer.

Παραλαβή ειδικών ψυγείων για την α

“The freezers are equipped with all the prescribed safety systems,” he added.

Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou announced this week that Cyprus will receive the first batch of Covid vaccines on December 27, together with other European countries.

Trained staff of the ministry will be in charge of the vaccination in 38 different points in all districts. The health ministry added there is the provision to operate 100 points across the island.

“The monitoring of the vaccination process and the stocks will be done through software that enables, even to monitor the route of the vaccines from the storage area to the Vaccination Centre,” the ministry said.

Priority will be given to health professionals and care home employees. After, citizens above 80 will be prioritised and those above 75 who belong to vulnerable groups.

Depending on the vaccine delivery, the ministry said, citizens who belong to vulnerable groups will be next in line to receive the Covid vaccine.

President Nicos Anastasiades, 74, will be among the first ones to get vaccinated, following the example of other country leaders.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.