Cyprus is set to reintroduce another lockdown with approval via text message needed to leave the home as recent measures have failed to contain COVID-19 after December became the deadliest month.
The Cabinet convenes on Friday, instead of Thursday, to decide on new measures to control the spread of the virus. It is expected to approve a second national lockdown similar to the one in March.
Hinting at a general lockdown, government spokesman Kyriakos Koushos said it was necessary to reschedule the meeting to give ministers more time to go through their planning and table their proposals to support businesses and employees.
The new measures as well as financial support schemes will be announced after Friday’s Cabinet meeting.
Koushos said that ministers agreed with epidemiologists advising the government, on the need to take additional measures.
According to news reports, Cyprus will be going into lockdown, much like the one introduced in March, when all non-essential businesses had closed down with people only allowed to leave their homes twice a day for shopping or exercise.
Essential services such as supermarkets, pharmacies, petrol stations and possibly the construction sector will remain open while remote learning for schools will be reintroduced.
The new measures are expected to be in place for a minimum of 3 weeks.
In what is perceived as confirmation that Cypriots will be confined to their homes, Deputy Minister of Innovation Kyriacos Kokkinos said his junior ministry is ready to reintroduce the SMS system.
In comments to Kathimerini, Kokkinos said there is a proposal to reintroduce the same mobile texting system used during the first lockdown for travel requests to be approved via SMS.
Proposed reasons for leaving the home:
- Going to a pharmacy, blood donation or visit to a doctor
- Shopping for essential supplies
- Going to a bank, if the transaction cannot be carried out online
- Absolutely necessary visits to state services or the wider public sector and local government
- To assist people who are unable to take care of themselves or are in quarantine
- Physical exercise or for the needs of a pet, as long as they do not exceed two people and are limited to areas near their home
- Going to a funeral, wedding, christening. This applies only to close relatives, with a maximum of 10 people allowed
- Any other justifiable emergency
The first lockdown into came in effect on March 24 and extended until 21 May.
Measures currently in place until Sunday include a 9 pm curfew, the closure of shopping malls, restaurants, bars and cafeterias, a ban on house visits.
The government also decided to send nearly all civil servants’ home to work remotely, leaving the state to operate only with a skeleton staff.
The coronavirus outbreak got out of hand in December with 12,086 of the total 25,781 COVID-19 infections since March recorded in that month.
December is the deadliest month on record with 76 of the total 138 COVID deaths occurring.
Cyprus reported another 573 new COVID-19 cases and four deaths on Wednesday with the number of patients in hospitals reaching a record 187, 49 are in a critical state.
