I feel great joy, satisfaction and emotion, because yet another goal of the government of President Nicos Anastasiades and the Ministry of Health has been achieved. Our goal of having First Aid for children, as you have seen, has been achieved and since Monday children have been coming to First Aid and being examined in the special section that has been specially configured for children.
As you have seen, children come with their families, they go to the screening centre, and immediately from the screening centre they go to the specially configured area that is for children.
As you have seen, children come with their families, they go to the screening centre, and immediately from the screening centre they go to the specially configured area that is for children. Right now there are three screening rooms. In the last few days that we have piloted, about ten to fifteen children have been screened. The number is down, that's why we have three rooms, and we need to give the OCYP and our physicians time to get this system working. We will evaluate it on a weekly basis and see what problems we have so that we can solve them immediately, because our goal is to upgrade this service that we offer to Cypriot patients as well. First of all, I would like to thank OKYPY, the Director of First Aid who is here with me, Doctor Pantela who is also here, the three remarkable paediatricians who are here with us and who trusted us. They are three remarkable physicians, and I want to thank them for trusting the OCYP, trusting the state hospitals, and starting with us this difficult work that we have been trying to do for decades. So we have three physicians on permanent staff. The goal of OKYPY is to hire two more physicians by the end of February, but the additional shifts will be staffed by state pediatricians working in our state hospitals. As you have seen, there is a partnership with the Adult TAP. If a CT scan needs to be done, the facilities of Nicosia General Hospital will be used.
Regarding the announcement on the cholera issue, immediately Medical Services acted and this announcement was issued. We will continuously monitor the situation and if we need to take any additional measures you can be assured that we will let you know. No case has been detected in Cyprus. They are recommendations. At the moment there is not any concern, but there is no complacency either. As far as the vaccine is concerned, expect to see the issues more hotly in the coming days, how the situation is progressing, and we will update you accordingly. Give us some time to look at it because, as you know, this is something we didn't know yesterday or the day before yesterday. It is a new virus that has appeared in the region in the last few days, but give us time, and if we have to receive vaccines in time, as you know, we are the first in all European countries to receive them. And the monkeypox vaccines we were the first country to get them, and we didn't get ten, we got the whole amount. If I have to talk to my counterparts from other countries, or my counterpart in Israel to get more vaccines, if and when we need them, you can be sure we will.
(AF)
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