South Cyprus introduce mandatory use of face masks again

The Greek Cypriot Health Ministry on Wednesday issued an announcement on the mandatory use of face masks in indoor and closed places from July 8th, following a decision taken earlier by the Cabinet. Masks need to be worn by anyone over the age of 12.

Replying to a question, The Minister of Health, Michalis Hadjipantela, said that authorities realized that a lot of people were visiting closed places without a mask while having symptoms which resulted in the spread of the virus in recent days. Hadjipantela said that we are now trying to stop the spread while at the same time trying to avoid restricting people too much.

According to the Greek Cypriot Health Ministry, between June 25-July 5 a total of 19,503 cases within the community were detected from a total of 147,623 tests, resulting in a positivity rate of 13%. Data show that the rise in cases is due to the sub-variants ΒΑ.4 and ΒΑ.5.

Source. CNA