New COVID action plan for Cyprus airports in place from February 21

The Council of Ministers decided today that new measures regulating travelers arriving into Cyprus will take effect on February 21st instead of March 1st.

Between February 21 and 28, which will be a transitional period, all passengers arriving in the Larnaca and Pafos airports will have to undergo a PCR test upon their arrival.

In statements after the Cabinet’s meeting, Transport Minister Yiannis Karousos said that after March 1, the mandatory PCR testing of passengers arriving in Cyprus will be abolished.

In addition, the Cabinet decided that the airport measures, with regards to passengers who are not vaccinated or have a valid vaccination certificate or recovery certificate irrespective of nationality, will apply to people aged 12 and over instead of 6 and over as previously announced.

The action plan is as follows:

Α. Country categorisation:

From February 21, 2022, onward, country categorization on the basis of their epidemiological risk changes and will include three categories as follows: Green, Red and Grey categories.

It is clarified that according to the new action plan the ECDC Green and Orange categories will correspond to the Republic of Cyprus’ Green category, while Red and Deep Red categories will correspond to the Republic of Cyprus’ Red category.

B. Vaccinated or Recovered passengers:

Passengers who are vaccinated or have recovered, irrespective of their nationality and country of departure are exempt from the obligation of meeting the conditions of the relevant category of their state of departure eg. to have a negative lab result, obligation for self-isolation/quarantine, having special permission, etc.

Passengers who are vaccinated or have recovered will be allowed to enter the Republic of Cyprus provided they fulfill one of the following conditions:
They have a valid vaccination certificate from the relevant authorities of any third country.
They have a recovery certificate issued by a third country included in the EU Digital COVID Certificate System’s list of third countries.
They have a European or third-country equivalent digital COVID vaccination or recovery certificate.

The vaccination or recovery certificate will be accepted only if all the following conditions apply:
It has been issued by state public authorities and only if the vaccine is one of the following: Johnson&Johnson/Janssen, AstraZeneca, (Vaxzervia, COVISHIELD, SKBio), Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Sputnik V (Gam-COVID-Vac), Sinopharm (BBIBPCOVID-19), Sinovac (CoronaVac), Covaxin, Sputnik Light (only as a booster shot as part of a full vaccination scheme) or Novavax Nuvaxovid COVID-19.

For passengers 18 years of age or above: For travel purposes, the passenger should have received the third booster shot for two-dose vaccines or the second dose for one-dose vaccines of one of the above vaccines. Vaccination certificates of passengers who have received only two doses of a two-dose vaccine or one dose of the one-dose vaccine are accepted only if nine months have not elapsed from the date of the second or first dose respectively.

For passengers 18 years and under: For travel purposes, the passenger is considered to have completed his or her vaccination scheme if he or she has received the second dose of a two-dose vaccine or the one dose of a one-dose vaccine.
The timeframe for travel purposes is defined by the Ministry of Health and is published in the CyprusFlightPass platform for each vaccine that has passed.

In case of a recovery certificate, the travel date should not be over 180 days from the first positive result.

C. Passengers who are not vaccinated or do not have a valid vaccination or recovery certificate:

Passengers who are not vaccinated or do not have a valid vaccination or recovery certificate, irrespective of nationality, will be allowed to enter the Republic of Cyprus from any state provided they fulfill the conditions, eg. a negative laboratory result, mandatory self-isolation/quarantine, issuance of special permission, etc., based on which state they are entering from.

Green Category: Passengers who are not vaccinated or do not have a valid vaccination or recovery certificate, aged 12 and over, who wish to travel to the Republic of Cyprus from a Green category country, are obligated to have a laboratory PCR negative test 72 hours before their departure or an antigen rapid test 24 hours before their departure.

Red Category: Passengers who are not vaccinated or do not have a valid vaccination or recovery certificate, aged 12 and over, who wish to travel to the Republic of Cyprus from a Red Category country are obligated to:
Take a laboratory PCR test 72 hours before departure or an antigen rapid test 24 hours before departure and undergo a PCR test upon their arrival in the Republic of Cyprus airports. The cost of the PCR test will be paid by the passenger.

Grey Category (Special Permission): Entry to the Republic of Cyprus from Grey Category (Special Permission) countries is allowed only in the following categories of passengers:

Cypriot citizens and members of their families, including foreign spouses and their underage children.
Persons legally residing in the Republic
Persons who have a right to enter the Republic in accordance with the Vienna Convention
European citizens, EEA citizens (Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway) and Switzerland
Third country nationals who have a right to enter the Republic of Cyprus following special permission through the electronic platform CyprusFlightPass (https://cyprusflightpass.gov.cy/el/special-permission-request) granted by the Republic of Cyprus as is stipulated in the current Quarantine Decree.

Passengers who are unvaccinated or do not possess a valid vaccination or recovery certificate aged 12 and above, who are allowed to travel to the Republic of Cyprus from a Grey Category country are obligated to:

Undergo a PCR laboratory test valid 72 hours before departure or an antigen rapid test valid 24 hours before departure and undergo a PCR test upon their arrival in the Republic of Cyprus’ airports.
The test’s cost will be paid by the passenger and they will remain under mandatory self-isolation for a period of 10 days or 7 days provided that they undergo a PCR test on the 7th day with a negative result at their expense.

For passengers who are not vaccinated or do not possess a valid vaccination or recovery certificate and belong to the category of domestic workers or any persons who have secured in advance a work permit for the Republic from relevant Ministries and Departments, as well as in the case of workers in the sector of agriculture / animal farming, they will need to pay for their quarantine facility in advance, according to a previous decision by the Council of Ministers.

It is further clarified that for CyprusFlightPass platform purposes, EU member states, EEA member states and Switzerland will continue to be categorised on the basis of the ECDC colour map which is published on a weekly basis.

The option of choosing to have a PCR laboratory test upon arrival in the Republic of Cyprus by Cypriot citizens, including their foreign spouses and underage children, all legal residents of the Republic and persons who have a right to enter the Republic in accordance with the Vienna Convention ceases to apply.

All passengers are obligated to fill in a CyprusFlightPass within 48 hours prior of their travel.