About 1,180 new COVID-19 vaccination appointments for people who are at risk of becoming seriously ill from the disease were booked through the vaccination portal in Cyprus during the first hour of its operation on Sunday, reliable sources have told CNA.

The portal opened on Sunday morning at 08:00 hours local time and will remain open until 20:00 hours on Monday. In total 7,500 appointments for vaccination with the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines have been made available.

On Saturday the portal was open for people aged 57 and 58 only. The same sources told CNA that by 2000 hours yesterday 4,920 appointments had been booked through the portal out of 15,000 which were available.

The Ministry of Health had announced yesterday that the portal would be open on Sunday and Monday for people who suffer from the following diseases, regardless of age:

Severe Chronic Respiratory Disease
Severe Chronic Renal Disease
Severe Cardiac failure
Severe Cardiovascular Disease
Congenital heart disease following surgical correction with significant residual damage or uncorrected congenital heart disease with significant residual damage.
Patients with a history of transplantation
Patients with immunodeficiencies, oncological cases and haematological malignancies
Patients with quadriplegia – neurological diseases with pulmonary problems
Individuals with Down Syndrome
Patients receiving biological agents, who have been approved upon a request to the Pharmaceutical Services
Patients with hemoglobinopathy.

The portal had technical problems during the week due to an excessive demand for appointments which have not yet been resolved. The Ministry of Health has said that it has changed its planning in order to continue the vaccination coverage of the population.  Until technical problems are resolved, appointments will be available only for new age groups that will be announced in advance.

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