The mandatory use of masks will soon be abolished

Minister of Health Michalis Hatjipantela sees a summer without health restrictions. In his interview with KATHIMERINI on Sunday, the Minister of Health said that the summer should go by without problems or restrictions if no new variants of the Omicron mutation appear.

More specifically, Mr. Hatjipantela stated that Cyprus is on the verge of lifting all of its covid restrictive measures that remain in force.  Regarding the issue of masks, the Minister of Health revealed that their necessity will be evaluated next month, hinting at its possible abolition, if the pandemic recession continues.

According to the Minister of Health, the prevailing scenario is that this summer season will have the same measures that are in force today. However, Mr. Hadjipantela added that the decision will be based on the number of hospitalizations. We asked the Minister of Health if he was concerned about a new outbreak after the end of the summer season, "If there is an increase in cases, as a first step we will suggest targeted measures in some areas and conduct sampling checks using mobile in order to assess the epidemiological picture".

Vaccines

Regarding the possibility of requiring a fourth dose of the vaccine, the Minister of Health stated that it would be after the summer season. Cyprus operates on the basis of the recommendations of the EU and the European Medicines Agency. If the recommendations change these will be studied and decisions will be made in consultation with epidemiologists.

"I will be judged by the citizens"

In his interview with "K", Mr. Hadjipantela mentioned that his predecessor Konstantinos Ioannou did an excellent job with regard to the pandemic. Asked if coming to the Ministry of Health bothered him when the bar was set so high, he said, "I was satisfied that the bar was set very high from the beginning. The bar in health must always be high. That is why, from the first moment I took over, I have been on the side of the citizens, trying to provide solutions to the problems faced by patients. I will continue to do this and in the end, I will be judged.

With regard to GESY, Mr. Hadjipantela stated that he received assurances from OAY that there were no operational issues, while at the same time he mentioned that there were no issues regarding rates of contribution at this time.

[This article was translated from its Greek original]