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President addresses the people before announcement of new measures

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It is time to take the matter of everyone`s life and health in our own hands, President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades said on Friday in a televised address to the citizens after the Council of Ministers` meeting, which decided on new measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus, as cases have been increasing in recent days.

In his address, the President noted that the measures that the government had to take are based on the positions of the scientific community that “either we get vaccinated or we get ill”. The President said that the government has reserved twice as many vaccines to cover the population.

He added that “it is time to take the matter of everyone`s life and health in our own hands with a sense of responsibility and solidarity,” and expressed his conviction that the citizens will behave accordingly.

Finally, he said that at 1800 (local time) the Minister of Health and the Citizens Commissioner will announce the new decisions.

President Anastasiades appealed to the citizens via a televised message, urging everyone to show solidarity and responsibility and to behave in a thoughtful manner, noting that the strict measures to be announced in the afternoon are necessary to deal with the sharp rise in Covid cases and the situation in hospitals.

The President in the morning presided over a Cabinte meeting to discuss and decide the new measures to be announced at 1800 (local time) by the Health Minister and the Citizens’ Commissioner. They will include stricter protocols and entrance to even more places with the safepass as well as incentives to speed up the vaccination program.

He noted that because of the delta variant which is super transmissible we have a sharp rise in cases in Cyprus and other countries and that the public health and the health system as well as the economy are in jeopardy. Therefore, he said, and having in mind that the hospitalizations are also on the rise we need to take urgent decisions. The President said that 9 of 10 people who have serious symptoms and are admitted to hospitals are people who did not get their vaccines or concluded their scheme and the majority are people under 40.

He said that the situation is critical and that the spread is out of control.

The President noted in his message to the citizens that countries around the world return to strict measures noting however that now, we cannot talk about lockdowns and quarantines as we have the means to fight the pandemic and these means are the vaccines. He said that the government decided not to make vaccination obligatory but has the responsibility to safeguard the public health and cannot put in risk the health system or the economy for the sake of the few.

He noted that the few cannot put in danger the majority of the population and be a threat to social cohesion and the right to return to the normality.

He said that through vaccinations we can have immunization of the public and urged everyone to join forces and to support the vaccination program, adding that Cyprus has ordered enough vaccines to cover double its population.

The President also pointed out that the scientific community has said that the vaccination is the means to protect ourselves from serious infection due to Covid and asked the people to be a part of the chain of vaccination and not the reason for this chain to break.

He also expressed his belief that we will once again make it all together.

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