Coronavirus: Minister hails EU agency’s approval of vaccine

Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou on Monday evening praised the European Medicines Agency’s decision on Monday to give the green light for the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.

In a statement made on Twitter, he said: “Today’s decision to grant permission for the vaccine in EU countries fills us with hope that it signals the beginning of the end of the pandemic.”

He also said that Cyprus is expecting the first batch of vaccines to arrive in the next few days. Vaccinations are due to start on December 27 it was announced last week.

EU’s chief executive Ursula von der Leyen also praised the decision and said the commission would act quickly.

“Now we will act fast. I expect a European Commission decision by this evening,” she wrote on Twitter.

 

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.