At the moment there are beds available in the intensive care units, however, these are not countless and there is a possibility that at some point the beds will not be enough, warned today the Minister of Health Michalis Hadjipandelas, emphasizing the importance of vaccination against COVID-19.
Mr. Hadjipandelas visited in the morning, accompanied by the Director General of the Ministry of Health, Christina Giannaki, and other officials of the Ministry of Health, the walk-in vaccination center at the State Exhibition. According to data provided by Ms. Giannaki, more than one million 915 thousand vaccines have been distributed and the percentage of fully vaccinated amounts to 69,9%, while with the first dose 76,3% have been vaccinated.
Hundreds of people were waiting in the area outside the center, the vast majority of them foreigners. In his statements, the Minister said that “we came to see how the vaccination program for non-registered in the GESS goes. The response of the people is very great. "This also sends a message to those of our compatriots who do not take advantage of this good we have of vaccination," he added.
He said: "Some of these people, one in particular, have been in line since 2 in the morning because they want to be vaccinated and get their lives back. "It's a message that some of our compatriots should get, who have this good, but apparently they can't appreciate it at the moment," he said.
Asked about the conditions under which people expect to be vaccinated in walk-in centers, Mr. Hadjipandelas said that "definitely something is wrong".
"Certainly something is going well, with the terrible response of the people," he said, noting that they could not have predicted that response.
He added that these centers are staffed by nurses. "Our nurses are currently fighting a lot and we do not have nurses available for an additional vaccination center. We have a great need for nurses in our hospitals, so it is not possible at the moment to open a second vaccination center, but it is something we see and next time we will try to organize it even better ", pointed out the Minister of Health.
Asked about the situation in hospitals, he said that "there are beds available in the intensive care unit, but a message must be given around the world, to those who have not been vaccinated and it is the majority of people in the intensive care unit, that there are countless intensive care units and there is a possibility at some point there may not be enough beds ”
He pointed out that there are other incidents that need intensive care "and these incidents are also among our priorities".
"So there is a way so that we do not lack intensive care. "People should be vaccinated so that they do not end up in intensive care," he added.
Asked about the possibility of giving a third dose of the vaccine to certain categories of people, Mr. Hatzipandelas said that he had been informed by the Deputy Director of Pharmaceutical Services, Elena Panayotopoulou, that this issue was discussed yesterday in the EU institutions "and we are waiting for an answer from next days "
Asked about the issue of T / C vaccinations, he said that about 171 Turkish Cypriots were vaccinated yesterday. He added that a meeting was held today at the Ministry of Health regarding the issuance of the European Certificate, the Green Pass, which concerns the Turkish Cypriots.
"We believe that by the end of the day we will announce the process so that the Turkish Cypriots can receive this certificate," he said.
Asked about the proposals regarding the decision-making process on what will apply to schools and universities, the Minister of Health said that the decisions concerning the universities will be made at the meeting of the Council of Ministers on August 23.
He stated that the universities have required 80% physical presence in the classrooms in order to operate. To do this, he said, these students must be vaccinated.
"We gave the option in case students are not vaccinated to have PCR because PCR is the most valid way to diagnose whether one has the virus or not," he added.
He said that students can go to a walk-in center that will also exist at the University to be vaccinated.
He noted that the Ministry of Health has not yet expressed its views regarding primary schools. It is something that is handled by the Ministry of Education and when they ask for our opinion we will mention it, he added.
Mr. Hadjipandelas also said that in the meeting they had with secondary education they asked to be given the opportunity to give seminars in high schools and high schools, as well as to give the Ministry a list if there are interested students to create vaccination centers in high schools and in high schools.
Asked about the possibility of putting on the table some measures to limit the spread of the virus, the Minister of Health said that they evaluate all the data.
For her part, Ms. Giannaki noted that the goal is for the percentage of vaccinated people to reach almost 81% by the end of August.
And this is done with great effort and with great effort because the team that surrounds the Minister has not taken a single day off to rest, he said.
He added that 350 patients were referred to the private sector and 40 to the intensive care unit.
"Today we have 79 beds available in the private sector that anyone can go to, and of the 40, 26 were left in the intensive care unit," he added.
He said that at 3.30 in the afternoon there will be a meeting "in which we will see things and what is the course".
"Every day is a puzzle. "On this puzzle we are working today on what we will do, how much we have and depending on it we will see the next day how it will work", he pointed out.
Therefore, he added, the management that is currently being done by the Ministry of Health, we evaluate it as very good with these data that we have.
Source: KYPE