Current Events

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the death of several industries and business, and the Cyprus tourism industry is no exception. As a result of the nationwide lockdown that been put in place to curb the spread of the pandemic, tourist arrivals in the island nation has fallen manifold.

According to statistics, the percentage of tourist arrivals has fallen by a record-breaking 67.4% – going down from 169,934 in March 2019, to 55,342 in March 2020.

This is due to the lockdown that has been imposed from 15 March. It includes bans on entry and exit to the country for all residents and non-residents, including tourists. This led to the number of tourist arrivals falling by leaps and bounds.

Arrivals from the UK fell by a record 70.2% in March 2020 (as opposed to the same time last year), while that from Russia and Greece declined by 60.8% and 66.6% respectively.

This has been a very bad news for the country’s economy, especially after it enjoyed a record 3.97 million visitors in 2019.

In the latest instance of migrants seeking asylum, a boat with around a hundred migrants reached the southern part of Cape Greco.

The Cypriot Coast Guard is currently on the way to offer them necessary supplies but will not be able to allow them to enter the country due to the lockdown in place to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The boats currently lies around 10 nautical miles off of the south coast of Cape Greco.

A pipe bomb has exploded right outside MC Digital Media Group’s office building.

The building currently houses the Cyprus Times along with other media outlets that the group owns. The offices are located in Limassol in south Cyprus.

The windows were cracked, and some minor damage was sustained by the building. No one was injured.

According to Myriella Avraamidou, the editor-in-chief of Cyprus Times, the attack was related to the reporting activities of the news outlet. That being said, she had neither heard of nor received any threats regarding any of the articles before the bombing.

So far, the police have negated any personal motivations behind the attack. They are currently investigating ties between the bombing and the journalistic activities of the outlets of MC Digital Media Group.

In order to assist the needs of the elderly without exposing them to the coronavirus, Lidl outlets in Cyprus will open in the country for the early hours exclusively for the elderly and the disabled.

All of the 17 Lidl stores on the island nation will be open daily from Mondays through Saturday s from 7am to 10am, and on Sundays from 8am to 10am. in all 17 Lidl stores in Cyprus.

All customers will be expected to follow the staff members’ guidelines and instructions at the entrances and follow all safety protocols.

Vassiliki Adamidoum, the Communications, Corporate Responsibility and Social Media Manager of Lidl in Cyprus has said that during trying times such as this, Lidl and all of its employees are committed to work towards the benefits of those who need their care.

Popular sports team AC Milan has secured a sponsorship from ROInvesting, a popular Cyprus-based trading platform.

ROInvesting, which is keen to feature AC Milan’s logo and showcase their services to a global audience, is yet to reveal the exact details of the partnerships. It does, however, seem like it is one of the many partnerships that Ivan Gazidis has been working on in the last few months.

Reciprocally, AC Milan has added ROInvesting’s logo into its its own website in a third tier along with the other sponsors, namely PES2020, Boglioli, Piquadro and Peroni.

The designation given to the company is the Official CFD Partner for AC Milan. CFD, here, stands for ‘Contracts for Difference’ – the service that ROInvesting provides to the team.

In the latest case of curfew violation, 24 persons were arrested for violating curfew by holding a house party.

The party in question was held in an apartment in the first few hours of the curfew in Larnaca. An anonymous tip led the police to the gathering, which clearly ignored the decree of having only a few household members available at any point of time. All of the members present were fined €150 and released.

Had thos incident happened after the passing of the curfew law, the fines would have been at least double (at least €300 spot fine per person).

According to police spokesperson Christos Andreou, the public must act as a neighborhood watch and inform authorities should they observe any curfew violations.

In a new move to curb the deadly disease, Turkish Cyprus’ government has declared a full curfew to keep itself out of community transmission.

The curfew, which will come in action from March 31 and remain till April 5, will remain in effect from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily. These curfews will not be partial ones, and residents will not be allowed to go out unless they have a perfectly valid reason and/or are facing an unavoidable emergency.

Turkish Cypriot Deputy Foreign Minister Kudret Özersay, who made the announcement, explained how the curfew is stricter than before, and how making home visits is not allowed nay longer. He added that while essential services such as supermarkets will continue to work, they will close down at 8 p.m. Özersay went on to call on municipalities to ensure that all supermarkets were taking the required measures to maintain hygiene, and that the staff was being regularly screened for symptoms.

The curfew decision has been announced after a cabinet meeting that was held to discuss the recent development underlying the COVID-19 pandemic.

Turkish Cyprus has around 70 confirmed cases thus far. The death toll stands at 1, a tourist from Germany who passed away from complications due to the virus.

S high blanket made of dust was recorded across Cyprus skies. This affected those with pre-exiting conditions and allergies more serious.

The Air Quality Monitoring Network, which is monitoring the situation from the ground, has warned the public to keep themselves and especially those in vulnerable groups ( such as sick persons, older persons, children, and pregnant women) to move in open areas since the respirable particles in dust might affect their health adversely.

Of course, with the COVID-19 lockdown in place, most persons already do not travel and are only allowed to get out for essential travel. With the dust, however, it is not advisable for people to go outside – even if said place is their own backyard.

The law says that daily average dust concentrations should not go beyond 50 μg/m3 (i.e. micrograms per cubic meter). Among the worst affected were the areas of Paralimni and Larnaca.

The  Cypriot cabinet has approved a bill that amends the spot fines law to fine all “quarantine-breakers” a 150 Euro fine.

The health minister has stated that the police will impose said fine to any patient who violate the rule on quarantining for the coronavirus by not adhering to circulation restrictions and bans issued in public interest to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

According to Justice Minister Giorgos Savvides, that depending on the circumstances the police may also bring more serious charges to some offenders, especially repeat ones. The police can also take the offenders to court if necessary, where they will be awarded higher fines and even jail sentences.

The bill, which still requires the approval of the Parliament, will award fine quarantine breakers for a minimum of €3,000 and/or a jail sentence of up to 6 months.

The movie, directed by Greek-American movie director Dimitris Logothetis is continuing despite the outbreak, even as the Cypriot government is shutting down most businesses and setting up as many quarantine facilities as is possible.

According to Mr. Logothetis, they are being patient, but they understand that their work must continue regardless of the circumstance. He elaborated how it is important for him and his crew to continue as per schedule, since they have more than the movie in question to shoot.

The Highland Film Group distribution company, which is producing the film, is currently undertaking the pre-production process as it scouts for various locations on the island.

To maintain law and order amidst the crisis posed by the novel coronavirus, the government of Cyprus has frozen the pending eviction of all tenants who are unable to pay their rent till May 2020.

The executive order was made after the rapid passed of a bill by the Cabinet. Said bill amends the Rent Law and freezes any and all eviction notices and court proceedings for a period of time. Any owner who evicts their tenant during this period will thus be going against the law.

The decision was taken taking into account the difficulties faced by business and households after the various lockdowns that have been put in place due to the crisis posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. All businesses and stories except kiosks, supermarkets and bakeries are currently closed.

The amendment to the bill will cover tenants failing to pay rent till May 1.

Interestingly, this amendment to the Rent Control Law comes very soon after the one that was made in January this year. This first amendment made it easier for landlords to evict those tenants who did not pay their dues on purpose. Under this, landlords can file a suit and evict tenants who have failed to pay their rent despite having the means to do so.

In an exigent circumstance such as COVID-19, however, this amendment has been put on hold on grounds on maintaining law and order and helping business and families best keep afloat.

In an ongoing chain of events promoting better military cooperation between countries in the Mediterranean, Italy and Cyprus have recently conducted joint military exercises of the course of Larnaca.

The Cyprus Navy participated in various drills along with the” Virginio Fasan” as Italian Navy Frigate. The Fasan was docked at Larnaca port for this purpose.

The Italian Embassy in Nicosia issued a press release stating that the frigate is conducting joint exercises for the purpose of better patrolling and surveillance in the Eastern Mediterranean. They added that the activities are totally within the interests of both nations, and in full compliance with international statutes.

Notably, ENI, the Italian energy company conducts drilling for possible gas and oil deposits in the island country’s EEZ.

The Fasan joins a slew of Italian ships that have visited Cyprus ports in the last few months. The frigate had originally come into service in 2013 in the Italian. It currently serves with the First Marine Division Command in La Spezia.

A massive house fire that broke out in Konia has led to its occupant – a woman, being hospitalized with severe burns.

According to a report by The Cyprus News Agency, the fire, which broke out at approximately 11.30 am in the morning, originated in the kitchen from cookware that was left unattended on a gas stove.

The woman did try to remove it to prevent a mishap but was unsuccessful and suffered severe burns to her left foot and her hands. She was hospitalized to be treated for first as well as second degree burns.

A newly published study has revealed that Cyprus has the second lowest rate overcrowded households populated by non-EU citizens among all countries of the European Union.

The study, which was conducted and published by Eurostat, revealed that the island nation stands second only to Ireland, which has the lowest rate of non-EU citizens who live in overcrowded homes.

The study further revealed that around 35% of non-EU citizens who lived in EU countries dwelled in overcrowded homes. In other words, the number of rooms in most of these households did not correspond to the family sizes. The name rate for EU nationals, on the other hand, stood at 17 per cent.

In all EU countries, the member states to have the highest rates for non-EU citizens living in overcrowded homes included Bulgaria (the highest of these at 60%), followed by Croatia, Poland, and Greece at 59%, 56% and 55% respectively.

In what is touted as one of Cyprus’ most groundbreaking laws, the island nation is finally bringing the law of phone tapping into force.

The development, which happened after a three-member committee was appointed, will serve to submit requests for removing telecommunications data confidentialities.

According to a report by Phileleftheros, the requests will be approved by the attorney general. The court order, on the other hand, will be issued once the court has fully determined that conditions are met.

Notably, the only ones eligible to carry out the surveillance will be some specific authorized members of the intelligence services and the police.

While the committee members’ names were not revealed for safety reasons, Phileleftheros has reported that the appointees were all personally chosen by the President.

The migrant crisis has left several countries in Europe in a scurry to manage the situation, and Cyprus is no exception. In the latest incident involving migrants, 14 of them who had arrived from Syria were picked up in the buffer-zone village of Athienou in Larnaca district.

The migrants, all of whom were found wandering in the village, were picked up by the police at around 2.30am in the morning. The group comprised of 2 children, 3 women and 9 mine men were then questioned by the police.

Upon being questioned, the migrants reported that while they understood that they had arrived to the village through the north, they could not re-identify the exact place from where they had entered the island.

At the end of the day, the migrant group was transported to the Kokkinotrimithia processing centre on the outskirts of Nicosia.

In the latest incident, a 34-year-old in Limassol was arrested on suspicion of physically assaulting his own mother.

The man, who was sitting in the passenger seat in a car that was being driven by his mother, allegedly made her stop, got out of his seat, removed his clothing and began to hit his mother with a pen-knife after opening her side of the door. After this, he even pulled her out of her sear to further hit her and kick her head.

Notably, the man did not stop even after his stepfather intervened in the scene to stop him. In fact, the man ran away in his stepfather’s car after threating him with the pen knife as well.

He was arrested after being spotted by the police around one-and-a-half hours after the incident.

In the meantime, his mother was hospitalized and taken to a private hospital. She sustained eye injuries, as well as face and neck as abrasions. Both appeared to have been made with sharp instruments.

News outlet Philenews has reported that pharmacies all over Cyprus have a severe shortage of surgical masks after they were all sold out due to coronavirus fears.

While the island nation has not seen any cases of the rapidly spreading coronavirus so far, the panic related to the global crisis has surely overtaken it. Despite high-level screening being done at all ports of entry, people have panicked enough to buy surgical masks in large quantities – an act that has caused a severe shortage of the same.

According to Eleni Piera Isseyeg, president of the Pharmacists Association, the coronavirus outbreak has superseded the pharmacies extra stock that is generally kept in anticipation of the flu season. Much like the rest of Europe, masks have practically sold out as people are in panic over contracting the disease.

Ms. Isseyeg, who explained that most of the mask buyers are travelers and tourists (especially Chinese tourists) buying extra masks to take home to relatives, has urged the public to exercise discretion while buying them.

In the meantime, another item whose stocks have suffered are antiseptic gels. Heightened concerns over the coronavirus outbreak has caused scores of people to buy these gels in large quantities, which has caused a shortage in their supply.

In under a week after the progress of the €550m City of Dreams Mediterranean project, popular entertainment company Melco Resorts and Entertainment has launched its 4^th satellite casino in the island nation.

The casino, named Cyprus Casinos Paphos has already begun to welcome guests. As mentioned earlier, it is the fourth of its kind to open after Melco’s other satellite casinos that were opened in Larnaca, Nicosia, Ayia Napa and Larnaca.

The casino is located in Geroskipou near Paphos International Airport, has 25 individuals under its employment, and is graced with over 50 high-end gaming machines.

A head-on collision between a car and a motorcyclist has left the latter in serious condition and hospitalized.

The accident, which happened in Dasaki Achnas in the British base area of Dhekelia, led to the closure of the main Achnas road for investigation purposes.

The motorcyclist, who was described as about 27-28 years old, suffered injuries to his shoulder and leg, and was transported to Larnaca general via ambulance.