Cyprus says people under the age of 50 should use mRNA-based vaccines

On Wednesday, Cypriot health authorities advised people under the age of 50 to use Pfizer / BioNTech or Moderna vaccines based on the new mRNA technology.

The Ministry of Health said the decision came after a majority recommendation from its group of scientific advisors on COVID-19, following “reports of serious incidents related to blood clots”.

He did not provide further details. Cypriot media have widely denounced the death of a 39-year-old woman, allegedly one cerebral hemorrhage—About two weeks after receiving a shot from AstraZeneca, although it was not clear if the sting was really related to his death.

The ministry’s advisory body also unanimously decided that people who already received the first shot of AstraZeneca and did not suffer serious side effects, such as blood clots, should receive the follow-up score, which the ministry went say that “it is particularly important for its protection against COVID-19 and its variants.”

Zoe Pana, a member of the advisory body, told private television station ALPHA that the chance of a person suffering from a blood clot or other serious side effect in their second AstraZeneca shot is minimal.

Earlier Wednesday, the head of the advisory body Constantinos Tsioutis told state broadcaster CyBC that some scientists had suggested putting the AstraZeneca vaccine aside.

The Ministry of Health has already asked the European Medicines Agency for guidance on whether the death of the 39-year-old Briton this week was definitely related to the AstraZeneca puncture. A small number of other incidents have been reported blood clots developing into individuals who had previously received a trait from AstraZeneca.

Health officials say the infection rate in the eastern Mediterranean island nation, at about 900,000, has declined in large part due to the government’s accelerated vaccination program. To date, approximately 50.4% of the population has received at least one vaccine, while 23.7% have been completely vaccinated.

Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou said Cyprus expects to deliver 201,000 doses of Pfizer / BioNTech next month vaccine, 24,000 doses of Moderna, 35,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson and 90,000 doses of AstraZeneca.

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