Holiday period restrictions to be announced Friday

The Cyprus cabinet will be deciding on Wednesday on the restrictions that are to apply for December and the Christmas holidays, with the new measures to be announced to the public by the health minister on Friday.

In statements on Tuesday, government spokesman Kyriakos Koushios said President Nicos Anastasiades will chair the meeting of the cabinet scheduled for 10:30am on Wednesday after his 9am meeting with the government’s coronavirus expert task force who are expected to table proposals for the government’s next steps in managing the pandemic.

While the measures that are to follow those currently in place once they expire on November 30 are to be decided on tomorrow, they won’t be announced publicly until Friday.

Meanwhile, the entire cabinet as well as Presidential Palace staff were tested for the virus o Tuesday, with results expected later in the day. The round of tests came after the agriculture minister Costas Kadis tested positive last week, leading his close contacts, including the ministers of interior and transport, entering a period of self-isolation.

The defence minister Charalambos Petrides was also instructed to self-isolate after a participant of the tripartite meeting of the defence ministers of Cyprus, Greece, and Israel that took place in Nicosia earlier this month tested positive for the virus.