Cyprus Mail 10 March 2020 - article by Gina Agapiou
The ministry of health’s coronavirus helpline 1420 is receiving around 300 calls every ten minutes, head of the health ministry’s ambulance service Riana Constantinou told the Cyprus Mail on Tuesday.
“People must stop calling for unimportant things so we can assist people’s urgent needs,” Constantinou said.
The helpline employs 20 operators and was set up by the ministry so that anyone with symptoms similar to those of Covid-19 can call to receive help instead of visiting hospital, which risks infecting others.
“What is happening is unbelievable,” Constantinou said, confirming people usually call to ask information about Covid-19 which can be found on the ministry’s website, instead of reporting symptoms.
According to Constantinou, the helpline saw the massively increased number of calls after Cyprus confirmed two first cases of Covid-19 on Monday.
“It is not a matter of adding more operators, the island’s telecommunications provider CyTA cannot manage that many calls,” she added.
