"Today we are here at the 5th walk-in held by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the President of the Pediatric Society Mr. Michael Anastasiades and the volunteer pediatricians at the State Fair, which also operates in Limassol for the second installment. At the moment here the volunteer pediatricians have given around 280 vaccines and at the Vaccination Center E of the State Fair we had walk-in for any citizen who wanted the first, second or third dose, and so far around 300 vaccines have been given there. This program will continue, we will be in Limassol and Larnaca next Saturday, and on Sunday we will be in Episkopio in collaboration with the Metropolitan and the President of the sufferers, Mr. Mario Koulouma. We will be joined by the Minister of Health, Mr. Michael Hadjipandela, and the President of the Pediatric Society to continue this great struggle for vaccinations. What I want to stress is that, particularly with regard to childhood vaccines, we have reached a rate of 8.9%. This is very good, it is very satisfactory, and we are continuing this fight on a daily basis. It is only on Sundays that the vaccination centres do not work. In general, today the percentage of the general population for the first dose is 74.7%, and the percentage of the general population that is fully vaccinated is 71.1%, and the percentage of the adult population fully vaccinated is 84.1%. We as the Ministry of Health have set a target of reaching 75% of the general population, and we believe with all this titanic effort that is being made that we will achieve it. We are approaching 9% of children who have been vaccinated. The numbers are around 6,050 children or so. We continue every day, both in Latchia, and here at the State Fair, through the walk-ins that we do. Every day we see an increase in children getting vaccinated. These days because of the cold weather we are down to five thousand vaccines a day, but still people are coming in, and parents are bringing their children. The numbers are for 5-11 year olds and also with 16-17 year olds the rate has touched 56%, and 12-15 year olds 46%."
On the issue of the three-year-old child who needs treatment for cardiac problems and who was unable to go to a hospital in Germany for surgery because his parents were not accepted due to lack of vaccination history, and who will eventually go to Athens for the necessary treatment, Dr. Giannaki said: "A few hours ago the air ambulance arrived at Larnaca Airport for refuelling and will depart around 1:15 pm. These are very, very specialised cases, which need the right team to handle them. He was going to a hospital in Germany, now he is going to the "Matera" Private Hospital in Athens, to Dr. George Sarris, who is the director of the headquarters of the "Matera" paediatric cardiac surgery clinic in Greece, and is also the President of the European Society of Paediatric Cardiovascular Surgery. We hope it will be for the good of the child."
Responding to a question about the efforts made by the Ministry of Health, Dr. Giannaki said: "States have their own rules, and since the child was not accepted, I had to turn to other states to accept the child. Eventually it was accepted by Athens and we stayed there to help the whole process, because it is a very difficult process to have so much communication to be able to reach the end goal for the best interest of the child. He is a three-year-old baby from Russia, whose parents reside here in Cyprus, and we as a Ministry wanted to help him, as we helped him a year ago. The family expressed satisfaction, and yesterday when we spoke to them, and this morning, they are already both in the ambulance to board the air ambulance. I hope and pray that they are satisfied, because both the Republic of Cyprus and the Ministry of Health put its heart and soul into helping them. The child's condition was stable from what the doctors at Makarios have informed us and we are waiting to see what will happen in the next few days when he goes to "Matera" in Athens."
(AF)
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