The island’s two main hospitals restricted access on Tuesday as the cabinet announced a series of measures to cut the spread of coronavirus after the first two cases were identified on Monday.

All 152 people tested for having links to a doctor at Nicosia general hospital who tested positive came back negative.

The people tested have been instructed to quarantine themselves for 14 days while authorities are tracking down the hundreds of others the doctor had come into contact with.

The two cases prompted the cabinet to take strict measures on Tuesday, including a ban on gatherings of over 75 people. Flouting the order is a criminal offence.

The ban on mass gatherings of people includes churches, Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou said. The president has informed the archbishop of the decision.

“All mass events, assemblies, concerts and parades in public venues are cancelled,” he said.

Following the four-hour meeting, the cabinet decided to shut down all but a few rural schools in Nicosia, both state and private, for three days.

“This measure aims at completing the checks concerning one particular incident and it was deemed preferable, solely as a precaution, to suspend the operation of schools at all levels, public and private,” Education Minister Prodromos Prodromou said.

Football games will be played behind closed doors, which concerns all fixtures in all leagues, including futsal, women’s football, as well as national team games, and Wednesday’s women’s game against Albania.

Four crossing points to the north will remain closed until the cabinet’s next meeting next week.

No measures were announced for military barracks.

The second confirmed case, a 25-year-old man from Limassol, had only come to contact with three people, since he isolated himself after returning from northern Italy.

While Nicosia general was almost closed down, health authorities on Tuesday suspended certain operations at Limassol general hospital for 48 hours pending the contact tracing linked to the doctor case.

Meanwhile, a local news portal on the Greek island of Chios reported on Tuesday that a 45-year-old woman, a permanent resident of Cyprus who works as a nurse, and her 20-year-old son who is a student there, had been quarantined after she walked into hospital with a sore throat.

According to Politis Chios, the woman told medics there she had come into contact with a confirmed case in Cyprus.

The two have been tested with the results expected by Wednesday.

Almost simultaneously with the confirmation of two cases in the Republic, Turkish Cypriot health authorities announced their first case, a 65-year-old German woman on holiday in the north.

In the north, Turkish Cypriots banned the crossing from the south of over 10 people and chartered flights from Germany, France, and Italy.

They have also placed three hotels in quarantine in Famagusta where 30 people belonging to the same group with the 65-year-old were staying. Nine other people in the same group were tested with a negative result.

Schools were closed and events cancelled while many areas, including crossing points, schools, and Tympou airport were disinfected.





