CY-Biobank reopens its doors to receive volunteer donors, following the March-April Covid-19 restrictions on movement - More security tests take place for upcoming new website

Following the temporary postponement of its services since the middle of March, as a result of the EU and Cyprus government restrictions of movement, as part of the efforts for fencing-off the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the gradual lift of these measures, the CY-Biobank Center of Excellence of the University of Cyprus, announces the relaunch of its volunteer donor programme. The Biobank of the Center of Excellence will begin taking biological samples for the donors starting Monday, June 1st.

As part of its precautionary measures, the CY-Biobank issued a relevant press release in the end of May, asking from the volunteer donors to book their appointments with the Biobank staff prior to arriving at its premises, in order to avoid the possibility of overcrowding its facilities. At the same time, the Center of Excellence reassured the public that it has taken all the necessary precautionary measures against the spreading of the Covid-19, in order to protect both the volunteer donors as well as its personnel. In this context it has procured the necessary protective equipment, including consumables such as antiseptic, masks, gloves and so forth to provide the donors upon their arrival to the Biobank. Meanwhile, it has advised the public that in case some of them are experiencing any possible symptoms of corona virus such as temperature, coughing, chest pains, breathing problems, diarrhea or any loss of taste and smell, to wait until having fully recovered before booking an appointment with the Biobank.

Despite the fact that the Cyprus government has only recently started lifting some of the restrictive measures regarding mobility on the island, CY-Biobank pushed to maintain its productive output on   a high level, both in terms of research, as well as communications. It has continued contributing to the dissemination of information in lay language to the wider public regarding the Covid-19 pandemic, mainly through the appearance of Director Professor Deltas on several TV and radio current affairs and news programmes. You can watch or listen to the interviews by clicking on the hyperlinks.

At the same time CY-Biobank is spearheading the efforts, in cooperation with the Medical Schools of the Universities of Cyprus, University of Nicosia and the European University Cyprus, in order to implement a new, widely ranged, scientific research, which will concern the impact of the corona virus pandemic on the island. While writing these words to you, the consortium’s proposal has passed through the scrutiny of the Cyprus National Bioethics Committee and has reached the latter stage of evaluation and is currently expecting to stamp of approval by the Cyprus Ministry of Health.

As regards to the CY­-Biobank’s new website, we couldn’t wait to break you the news about our new URL and its official launch for this month as we were so excited to inform you during our last BBMRI-ERIC newsletter entry. However, our IT team is making everything sure that the website will be up and running under a fully protected umbrella, that will enable it to withstand any potential cyber threat. Therefore, our IT experts are advising everybody to keep their patience and wait for the good stuff to come through in due time. We will certainly keep you posted.