Delays in flu vaccine delivery impact Covid-19 vaccination plans

Covid-19 and flu vaccines have not yet been administered to public, due to delays in receiving stores of the latter, Dr Christos Petrou said on Thursday.

Petrou, who is a professor of pharmacy at the University of Nicosia, said that there had been delays in delivering stores of the flu vaccine, resulting in vulnerable groups and people in nursing homes not receiving the vaccines.

According to Petrou, who spoke on Politis radio, the plan is to administer Covid-19 and flu vaccines to these groups at the same time to make it easier on the public, which means the flu vaccine needed to be here the same time as the Covid one.

The biggest problem, he added, is not the expiration date of the Covid-19 vaccines, but the fact that there are cases of coronavirus and a small increase in hospitalisations.

“Vulnerable groups, people in closed facilities and nursing homes have remained unvaccinated,” he said.

At the same time, he complained that vaccination timeframe and the public information campaign had not begun.