Cypriot gets vaccinated in Moscow

A business executive from Limassol living in Russia says he was given the Sputnik V shot for COVID-19, making him the first ever Cypriot known to have been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.

Nicos Antoniades, managing director at two companies based in Moscow according to social media, says he rushed to get vaccinated in Moscow because he “believed this whole process had to be completed the soonest possible.”

“I was among the first people who applied to take part in the research,” Antoniades said during an interview on a Cypriot TV channel, adding that millions of people were counting on the results of the vaccination study for their health.

“After an exhaustive process where they they screen for chronic diseases, coronavirus infection, allergies, smoking and alcoholism, pregnancy in women, or a sexually transmitted disease, then and only then you can be approved to receive a vaccination,” Antoniades said.

The Cypriot executive said he got his first shot on October 4, and 21 days later he got the second injection on October 24.

Antoniades said he was fatigued for a couple of days after each shot, adding that some 85% of participants were not expected to feel any side effects based on current data.

The Cypriot businessman went on to explain that he was among the 15% who were expected to experience some side effects, including an increase in body temperature, nausea, and fatigue.

He also said all participants were being monitored after the vaccinations, a process he said was expected to last through next April before he can be in the clear.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told leaders last weekend at a G-20 summit in Saudi Arabia that Russia was ready to distribute its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine to other countries.

Preliminary results from trials evaluating Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine revealed the vaccine caused no serious adverse events.

Sputnik V also elicited a stable humoral and cellular immune response in all participants, essentially giving them antibodies against the coronavirus.

Previously experts have said the Russian data was encouraging but warned that the results were only based on a small number of trial volunteers who had contracted COVID-19.

But officials in Brussels are also criticizing two EU members, Hungary and Poland, for trying to get the Sputnik V without authorization from the European Medicines Agency. An EU law requires an EMA permit before any vaccine can be marketed in any state of the 27-nation bloc.