New COVID death reports leave out vax history

The Health Ministry of the Republic of Cyprus has stopped reporting on the vaccination history in COVID-related deaths, citing difficulties over providing a full picture in each case due to privacy concerns.

According to local media, the health ministry says it does not plan to continue providing vaccination details in cases of patients dying after being infected with coronavirus, citing privacy concerns.

The announcement came after local media reported on a number of COVID deaths, many of which involved vaccinated patients including last weekend when one of four patients who died in hospital had no vaccination history.

Health officials say the ministry changed its policy due to privacy concerns, arguing in order to give a full picture in each case it would have been necessary to go into many details such as dates of vaccination, date of infection, date of admission to hospital, whether someone fell ill before or after getting the vaccine, or whether a death took place before post-vaccination immunity could be built up in the body.

Initially, official reports on COVID deaths included information on patients who had not been vaccinated, while later reports drew a distinction between deaths of patients who got the vaccine and those who did not. In many cases, it was not clear whether vaccinated patients had taken both doses in some cases.

“This ended up causing more uncertainty over the effectiveness of vaccines and the overall vaccination programme,” the ministry said.

On Monday evening, one death was announced involving an 84-year-old man who passed away in the ICU at Nicosia General Hospital. The report did not provide information on the patient’s vaccination history.

The daily count was 276 confirmed cases detected out of a total of 83,418 PCR and rapid tests. The report also said there were 207 hospitalized patients, with 64 said to be in serious condition.