The Health Ministry Undersecretary and head of the Higher Committee for Infectious Diseases Dr Deren Oygar has reassured the public on the safety and effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines.

In an interview to the TAK news agency published on Sunday, Dr Oygar said that patient statistics were proving the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines, particularly in preventing serious illness and hospitalisation.

She said like all other medicines like Covid-19 vaccines had some minor side-effects but these were nothing to worry about.

“So far we have not seen any major side-effects in any of the vaccines administered in the TRNC. We’ve only seen mild fever, redness and soreness where the vaccine has been administered,” she said.

Oygar pointed out that 69 per cent of the patients which had been admitted to ICU in July and August were unvaccinated, 31 had received the vaccine.

She added that 92 per cent of those who died were unvaccinated.

Dr Oygar also said that pregnant women should get vaccinated as they were at higher risk from contracting the virus.

Regarding the issue of returning 50,000 doses of the Astra Zeneca vaccine which is expected to expire at the end of the month, Oygar said that they had requested through the bicommunal Technical Committee for Health to switch these vaccines with those with a longer shelf-life.

She pointed out that the Astra Zeneca vaccine was a good vaccine as could be seen from patient statistics with only a small number of those who received the vaccine ending up in intensive care.

“We aren’t administering these vaccines at the moment because they would have expired by the time the second dose would need to be administered”, Oygar pointed out.

On the issue of schools, she said that they were monitoring developments closely and pointed to the importance of keeping schools open and continuing face-to-face education.

Oygar said that it was of utmost importance that students continued to adhere to measures while at schools.