Filenews 15 November 2020
The protection of public health remains the main objective of the government's strategy to tackle the unprecedented health crisis and The Minister responsible Konstantinos Ioannou assures that the top priority is the protection of the health of every citizen, as the President of the Republic himself stressed. "We are called upon to manage extreme situations, I want to assure that we are making every effort to ensure the health of citizens, to protect them from danger," Health Minister Konstantinos Ioannou tells Insider magazine, which is currently running with "Liberal", which hosts statements by the heads of the three ministries that have taken on the greatest burden of crisis management.
Mr Ioannou stresses that even in his worst nightmares he could not see that the day would come when he would be obliged to issue restrictive decrees of the form we have lived. "All this is done to protect us, it is necessary, it is measures that are being implemented in many other countries because unfortunately there is no other way," he adds, admitting that these are very difficult decisions, which are not taken lightly. "The images we have seen from hospitals in advanced countries, with patients dying helplessly, are shocking, upsetting every human being and we have an obligation to do everything we can to prevent them."
The opposition to the spread of the virus and the preparedness of hospitals remain for months the priority of the Minister of Health, who is constantly informed by the staffs and other officials of the Ministry, the consultant scientists and of course the management of the Organization of State Health Services, which now owns the autonomous hospitals of the public, to which the burden falls for the management of the Covid incidents. "For months we have been constantly saying that as long as there is no vaccine and effective treatment, unfortunately we will have to learn to coexist with the virus" states the Minister and stresses that therefore it was not possible to maintain the performance of zero cases observed in Cyprus after the effective management of the first phase of the pandemic.
"All our effort, all our actions, all our strategy is precisely aimed at avoiding mass contamination so that there is no need for simultaneous hospitalization of a large number of patients that will jeopardise the adequacy of the health system and not be able to treat them" states Konstantinos Ioannou, who once again reiterates that public hospitals are ready in terms of infrastructure , equipment and personnel. "But this adequacy is not unlimited, in no country in the world is unlimited," he clarifies, referring to the updated action plan prepared by the Organization of State Health Services for the management of Covid cases. "We have a duty to citizens to ensure the uninterrupted provision of health services and to take all necessary measures to tackle the pandemic," assures Konstantinos Ioannou. "In these unprecedented circumstances, it is difficult not to make mistakes, failures, shortcomings, gaps and omissions. But the big picture is that a titanic effort is under way that we want to complete. And for us, the first priority is to save the lives of citizens, to ensure the health of every citizen. This is our effort, the beginning and the end of our every action," he points out.
The vaccine
News from the scientific community regarding vaccine discovery is a source of relief at this difficult time. The Ministry of Health ensured in good time that Cyprus through the European Union, following the actions of Commissioner Stella Kyriakidou, would be included in the plan to purchase an adequate quantity of vaccines. Cyprus has requested more than one million vaccines to cover Turkish Cypriot citizens as well, and so far 800,000 have been locked in.
The European Union has reached an agreement with various companies on access to the vaccine, which also guarantees several quantities for Cyprus. These are the Franco-German partnership of Biontech/Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sanofi-GSK, Johnson & Johnson, CureVac and Moderna. "I hope that soon there will be more good news around this issue," concludes the health minister.
Zeta Emilianidou: Targeted support where needed and when needed
The management of the challenges that have arisen in recent months due to the pandemic, as stated in Insider, the Minister of Labour, Welfare and Social Insurance Zeta Emilianidou has brought both society and the institutions of the state face to face with unprecedented situations, which have the characteristic of urgency, as they directly affect primarily the health but also the social and economic situation of citizens.
"From last March when the pandemic broke out to this day, an amount of EUR 430 million has been used to support both workers and the unemployed through the Special Plans announced by the Government and implemented by the Ministry of Labour, Welfare and Social Insurance, while more than 190,000 workers and all unemployed people who have exhausted their six months of unemployment during the pandemic have been supported by the extension of the unemployment benefit. In addition, an additional EUR 100 million has been used to support small and micro-enterprises and self-workers by subsidising operating costs", he stressed.
According to the Minister, it is very important that the Projects announced and implemented to date are fully funded by the European Commission through the SURE programme, from which the Republic of Cyprus was one of the first two countries whose programmes were approved for funding, for the total amount of EUR 479 million.
"Also, all Special Projects have been implemented through a specialized electronic platform that has been created from the very first moment, so that support is provided immediately to all those who need it," he stressed.
Going a step further, Zeta Emilianidou stressed that the Special Projects implemented are the result of an in-progress Social Dialogue and this ensures that support is given where necessary, when necessary.
"Recently additional support measures have been approved by the Council of Ministers and announced by March 2021, with an additional expenditure of BETWEEN EUR 130 million and EUR 150 million. This process of constant revision of the measures, in accordance with the instructions of the President of the Republic, will also be used in the coming months, always depending on the epidemiological and other data that will apply and which are always taken into account", he concluded.
Director-General: Universal quarantine is a last step
It is a fact that the moments we are living in are unprecedented, with the effects of the pandemic on our economy being large and largely still unknown, since the pandemic has not yet been eradicated. On the contrary, it appears that a second wave, even greater than the first, is atoning the world. In order to deal with such an unexpected event, as a Government, according to the Director General of the Ministry of Finance George Pantelis, they adopted all the necessary measures to limit the spread of the pandemic in our country, but which had a significant impact on the smooth functioning of the economy.
The fact that Cyprus was called upon to tackle the pandemic from a fairly advantageous budgetary position has provided an opportunity to adopt such a generous package of support for vulnerable groups, workers and businesses, without compromising the long-term sustainability of public finances," he noted. Of course, as has been stressed on a number of occasions, according to the Director-General of the Ministry of Finance, the state's resources are not unlimited and therefore any new State support should take this important parameter into account. "Therefore, any new support given by the state to the economy should be well targeted towards those groups of the population most in need of support. It is obvious that the size of the support will depend on the intensity, extent and scope of any new restrictions imposed compared to the period of the imposition of the first universal quarantine. Undoubtedly, the imposition of a new universal quarantine will do great damage to the economy, which is why it is seen as a last-minute measure to halt the pandemic," he concluded.
Source: eyenews
