Seriously ill patients — including transplant recipients who are required to repeat all their vaccinations — have repeatedly lost the paper certificates recording their immunisation history, leaving doctors unable to access that information in emergencies. The Health Ministry has now drafted legislation to fix the problem.
The bill, titled “The National Vaccination Registry (Establishment and Operation) Law of 2026”, aims to create a single, central and fully interconnected system for recording vaccinations across Cyprus, linking the Ministry’s own IT systems with the GHS platform to ensure data exchange and immediate access to up-to-date vaccination information.
Organised patient groups had already raised complaints about the current system, according to the source report.
The problem
Vaccinations in Cyprus are currently carried out through different structures and recorded on separate platforms, making it difficult to monitor population vaccination coverage, according to the explanatory note accompanying the bill.
GHS beneficiaries are largely served by personal doctors and paediatricians, while uninsured residents and asylum seekers are vaccinated through Health Ministry vaccination centres. Two separate recording systems run in parallel: the GHS platform, which logs vaccinations for its beneficiaries, and the Ministry’s Vaccination Portal, originally used mainly for Covid-19 vaccinations and now being expanded to cover all available vaccines.
The Health Ministry says this fragmented picture makes it impossible to produce a full and reliable picture of vaccination coverage, while increasing the risk of duplicate or unrecorded vaccinations. The absence of unified data access also hampers the immediate use of critical health information, particularly in medical emergencies, the Ministry adds.
The solution
Through the National Registry, all citizen vaccinations will be recorded digitally regardless of where they take place, without duplicate data storage. The goal, the Ministry states, is for every citizen to have a continuously updated vaccination history they can access when needed.
The Ministry also says the Registry will strengthen prevention and public health by giving authorities a clearer picture of vaccination coverage rates, population needs and any gaps that may exist in specific groups or areas.
The Health Ministry is inviting all interested parties and members of the public to take part in a public consultation by submitting comments or observations through a dedicated online platform by June 24, 2026.