Cyprus Mail 12 March 2020 - article by Nick Theodoulou
Schools are closed until March 20, gatherings of 75 people or more are banned and a flurry of other measures by the government have taken place – but how do these measures compare to other countries?
The Republic has taken some of the strictest measures in the EU given the low number of confirmed cases, just six.
Restrictions on peoples’ movement have been set in France, with gatherings of over 1,000 to be limited – but in Britain no such measures are in place.
The Republic has said it will limit gatherings of over 75 people, but enforcement has not yet been detailed. Denmark has banned gatherings of over 100 people, with a ten-fold increase in confirmed cases from Monday to Wednesday – totalling 514 confirmed infections.
“Despite the small number of cases up until now in Cyprus, the measures we have taken now are much stricter than the recommendations from the WHO and ECDC,” Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou said in a written statement on Wednesday night.
In the north, with just one confirmed Covid-19 infection, all charter flights have been banned until April 1. The Republic, meanwhile, is still allowing flights from Italy, France, Spain and Germany – the worst affected European countries so far.
“Stricter measures in the future cannot be ruled out, taking into consideration WHO labelling Covid-19 a pandemic,” Ioannou said. “These measures are taken and are aimed solely at limiting, as far as possible, the potential spread in our country.”
Britain has not yet imposed travel restrictions.
Schools and universities are closed in the Republic, the north and Denmark. Other European countries have also closed education centres but in a more sporadic and staggered approach.
Italy, the hardest-hit European country, remains standalone in a nationwide lockdown with 12,000 cases and 821 deaths.
US President Donald Trump announced the travel ban “from Europe” and the World Health Organisation said that Covid-19 is a pandemic. It is likely that other countries will also take stricter measures to limit the spread.
Britain and Cyprus are exempt from the travel ban to the US as they are not members of the Schengen Area.
In Cyprus, Britain was designated in the category 2 travel restriction on Tuesday morning but was then placed back into category 3 by the afternoon. The initial move came as a significant amount of Cyprus’ confirmed cases involved links to Britain.
The decision to place Britain back into category 3, meaning no self-isolation measures are necessary for travellers, was widely seen as a Hail Mary to the tourism industry.
India announced on Thursday morning that almost all visas will be suspended for a month to combat the spread of Covid-19.
The move is expected to dent the tourism, aviation and hotel sectors.
All tourists arriving in Israel and Uganda must self-isolate for 14 days, regardless of where they have recently visited.
