Current Events

In a bid to give the retail sector a much-needed reboot, Cyprus’ apex mall has announced the beginning of an early summer sale, where shops are slated to offer discounts of over 50%.

Having reopened to customers on June 9, the Mall of Cyprus has already begun its ‘Summer 2020’ collection.

The collection includes various season-suited clothing items –shoes, bags, beachwear, casual clothes and athletic wear.

Shops will remain open from 10am to 8pm every day.

A recent Eurostat study has revealed that Cyprus has the second-largest number of non-nationals living in the country within the European Union.

The island nation has 18% of its population coming from foreign countries – second only after Luxembourg, the same figure lies at 47%.

Malta takes the third place at 17%.

Besides these three, other EU countries that have recorded a high proportion of foreign nationals included Spain, Estonia, Austria, Ireland, Latvia, Germany and Belgium. For each of these countries, the proportion of foreign national is over 10%.

Contrastingly, Romania and Poland had the least percentage of non-national workers, at under 1%.

In what is being considered good news after the intense lockdown due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, budget aircraft carrier Wizz Air has introduced 5 new routes, expanding its presence in Cyprus.

Besides the new routes, Wizz Air is building a third aircraft at its latest base in Larnaca.

Scheduled to start on August 1, the budget carrier will increase the number of flights to Athens, while introducing new ones to Prague, Paris Beauvais, Heraklion, Gdansk, and Eindhoven.

With the new additions, Wizz Air is now offering 36 routes to over 20 countries from its base in Larnaca, with a yearly seating capacity of 280,000.

In a statement to the press, Chief executive Jozsef Varadi announced the news, explaining how the new flights and routes have been added weeks within the opening of the Larnaca base. The further added that the airlines is delighted with the new development, and is currently making arrangements to add as many routes as is safely possible in the near future.

Just as the novel coronavirus pandemic was about to die down in Cyprus, 2 new cases were detected on the island nation. The cases were detected on the very day the last remaining COVID-19 patient was discharged.

According to the health ministry, the new development leads to the total number of confirmed cases now standing at 988.

Both the cases in question were among incoming passengers and repatriated Cypriot nationals. The ministry said that their contacts are currently in the process of being traced.

Apart from these two, there are no other coronavirus patients in treatment in any state hospitals.

The last patient to be discharged before the 2 new infections was an 80-year-old gentleman.

The health department has currently kept at least 40 beds on standby in the event a second wave of the disease strikes.

Furthermore, all health, hygiene and social distancing measures are being maintained to ensure that the spread of COVID-19, if any, remains as minimal as possible.

Booking flights post-Covid has been increasing steady, and the latest data only proves this to be true.

According to Easyjet, flights from London to Cyprus that are slated to run in July have mostly been sold out.

The airline further explained how this development has partially happened due to the fact that the flight capacity has reduced to maintain social distancing measures. More and more seats will be opened up as and when the pandemic eases.

According to an Easyjet spokesperson, the airlines’ customer care department is currently writing to waiting customers that they are doing the best they can to maintain the schedule and accommodate as many persons as they can without putting anyone in jeopardy.

They explained that every passenger who gets a ticket will be contacted at least 21 days before their scheduled flight.

They also assured that they will maintain all safety precautions necessary to keep the contagion at bay. This includes social distancing, luggage handling, and of course masks being compulsory throughout.

In what is considered a worrying statistic, especially for gender inequality, a Eurostat report has revealed that around 1 in 3 women over the age of 65 are living alone and unassisted.

This is a stark contrast to men, as only 1 in 10 of those are living in similar conditions.

In the same age bracket, those living with just one more adult is also 30 percent for women, which is the same as the over-65 bracket. In the case of m en, however, the figure is much high – at over 33 per cent.

The data in question here applies exclusively to those who are living in private homes.

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the tourism industry the most, and countries are taking the safest possible routes to get back on track as the spread eases.

According to a report by KAN News, the island nation will now allow Israeli nationals for tourism purposes without them having to undergo any kind of quarantine.

This, however, applied only on the condition that travelers would have to take and test negative for a COVID-19 test within 72 hours of arriving on the island.

The move comes after a sharp decline in active cases and steadfast recoveries in both countries. Cyprus has shied away from reaching the 1,000 mark in coronavirus cases and has thus far reported only 17 deaths.

Meanwhile Israel too is making its way to normalcy with the economy’s staggered reopening, and only 2,600 pending active cases. The rate of infection in the country is progressively dropping daily.

The media in Cyprus has reported Turkish aviation authorities preventing a chartered airplane with medical supplies reaching Cyprus.

The Cypriot government-chartered airplane, which contained over 36 tones worth of mask, gowns, gloves, and other medical equipment from China was blocked by Turkey.

According to Transport Minister Yiannis Karousos’s statement to the press, Turkey’s disallowance of aircraft enter Cyprus via the Turkish airspace resulted in the pilot having to recalculate his course. Added to this was the issue of lack of fuel.

The issue was finally solved with the pilot redirecting to Moscow airport in Russia. The plane will refuel here before embarking to Cyprus via a different route that does not include the Turkish airspace.

He further added that The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was informed of this interruption so as to take proper actions against concerned parties as and when required.

Cyprus is all set to reopen its airports on June 9 after ending strict lockdowns put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This reopening is happening right as said lockdown restrictions which were imposed to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus are being slowly lifted.

In a statement to the media, Cypriot’s Deputy Tourism Minister Savvas Perdios said that the authorities expect to fully contain virus’s by June. This means that it would be safe to go back to business as usual and open airports and other transportation means – especially since it is very essential.

The island nation was one of the few countries in Europe that took early measures to prevent the coronavirus outbreak to take deadly proportions. Borders were sealed in around the middle of March – much before other European nations, and went on to stop all passenger flights since March 21.

Cyprus currently has 918 cases of COVID-19.

The government has reported a sharp increase in welfare spending resulting from the outbreak of COVID-19.

The report says that the state’s welfare spending has increased to a total of €513 million as the state has launched multiple support programs to ensure the personal and professional safety of its residents.

The money spent during the period of January to April 2020, is an increase of a whopping 108% – as compared to the €246.9 million that was spent between January to April 2019.

The report clearly attributes the spike in welfare spending to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the resulting expansion of the National Health Scheme and its payment.

The top spender in this regard has been the Ministry of Labor, which spent over €153 million in the month of April. Its total expenditure in the January-April period has been €407 million. This was confirmed by Labour Minister Zeta Emilianidou, who explained to the Parliament how a sum of €219 million was paid to the people from March May through a variety of welfare schemes.

The spending has had an adverse effect on the state’s financial status. The state revenue has gone down by 13.5% during this period, as opposed to the expenditure which has risen up by 16.5%.

As coronavirus outbreak eases, European nations are slowly opening up to return to a new normal. Temporarily shut down Ryanair is all set to begin flights to and from Cyprus from the 1^st of July.

The budget airliner reported that it will start offering daily flights all Northern European countries including the Netherlands, Ireland, the UK, Germany and Belgium, to top holiday destination airports such as Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, and of course Cyprus.

It will, however, be operated only at 40% of its schedule and remain compliant with health and social distancing guidelines – even as it continues to serve during peak tourism season.

To give the business a much-needed boost, Ryanair is launching an exclusive travel sale, offering travelers fares as low as €29.99 for a one-way flight. Seats must be booked by May 28 midnight, however.

The Cypriot government is all set to deport 17 migrants for having links with terrorist organizations.

The government recently announced that the 17, who were arrested on the basis of suspicion of having links to extremist groups or being part of terror activities were being held in a detention centre.

They will be deported once the transport system is back online after the end of the coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions.

According to a statement by the ministry, the information of the individuals’ involvement in terror groups was verified by Interpol and Europol. Both organizations iterated that these people either belonged to extremist groups, or were directly involved in acts of terrorism.

The details of these people were not disclosed for security reasons.

Cyprus has successfully tested over 12% of its total population for the novel coronavirus.

Health minister Constantinos Ioannou recently revealed to the House health committee that the island nation is now the sole country in all of the European Union to achieve this status.

He further added that Cyprus will continue its contact tracing to further test people for the deadly pandemic-causing virus.

Minister Ioannou went on to explain how over €6.7m has been spent thus far over testing, and that the expectations are for prices to go down further.

Tests in Cyprus currently cost €65, only second to Romania’s €63 – which is the cheapest in the European Union.

According to Google, many “hacker-for-hire” firms that are backed by the Cypriot government are now targeting consulting firms, healthcare facilities and financial institutions all over the island nation.

Google went on to say how they sent over 1700 warnings to users whose accounts were compromised by these government-based hackers. Clearly exploiting the coronavirus pandemic, they use phishing and hacking techniques under the guise of messages related to COVID-19.

Google’s Threat Analysis Group says that many of these “hacker-for-hire” firms are actually based in India. They have been creating Gmail accounts that spoof top organizations such as the United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The coronavirus pandemic has led to lockdowns all over the world, with all forms of transport suspended till further notice. With no trains or planes in sight, all travel plans, and trips have been foreseeably canceled. This has not, however, stopped the wealthy and affluent in Russia from fulfilling their plans.

Private jet companies have reported a sharp rise in demands of planes from rich Russian nationals who wish to spend time away in Europe away from their home country.

Many of these have close relations with countries such as the UK or Cyprus – be that the form of owned property, close relatives, permanent residency or even dual nationality.

Believing that their private homes abroad would be safer than those at home, these people have been seeing paying a lump sum of anywhere between 16,000 to 25,000 euros per flight. Notably, this would generally be the cost of the air fare of more than 13 passengers.

A massive fire burned more than 2½ hectares worth of vegetation in Cyprus’ Softades area.

The fire broke out in the early hours of the morning on the road from Kiti to Mazotos. The vegetation it destroyed included olive and eucalyptus trees, reeds and other wild plants and vegetation.

It took over 2 hours of fighting before the firefighters finally brought it under control. More than 4 vehicles from the Larnaca station were used for this purpose.

Rumors have finally been put to rest as Norwegian energy company Hoegh LNG has finally confirmed that it had indeed submitted a proposal to install of a Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FRSU) in Cyprus.

According to a statement from the company itself, officials sent letters to President Nicos Anastasiades along with finance and energy ministers, where they highlighted the key benefits and advantages to installing an FSRU in Cyprus, and especially at Vasiliko.

Hoegh LNG went on to add that the main purpose behind sending these letters was to help the government understands more regarding the proposal that had officially been submitted to Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority (Cera).

In the meantime, CERA itself, refused to make any comments due to the ‘under-review’ status of the application.

The proposal in question includes installing said FSRU at Vasiliko in Quarter 1 of of 2021, along with a pipeline that would to transport gas to EAC’s power plant, as well as other potent users.

In news that indicates hard time for the Cypriot economy, a Eurostat report has revealed that over 40% of exports have dropped in the period of January to February in 2020.

According to the report, the value of exported goods reached around €0.4 billion – around €0.1 billion less than the average €0.3 billion.

In the meantime, imports remained steady at €1.5 billion – out of which, €0.8 billion was from the EU while the remaining €0.6 billion was from other parts of the world.

This means that Cyprus faced a -€1.0 billion deficit in the aforementioned January-February period.

The struggling economy of the EU along with the growing crisis of the coronavirus pandemic are being touted as the main reasons for this downturn.

The coronavirus pandemic and its resulting lockdown have kept many on the edge, and many are resisting and violating the law. In the latest incident, over 80 persons were arrested within 12 hours in the space of Saturday night and Sunday morning during the Easter weekend.

The police, who carried out over 4,000 during the time booked violators of the lockdown. They conducted checks 976, 815, and 311 checks in Nicosia, Limassol and Larnaca, booking 31, 20 and 16 persons respectively.

Others were booked in Famagusta and adjoining areas, where over a thousand were checked.

In a news that reveals much about Cyprus’ demographics, a Eurostat study has shown that Cyprus some of Europe’s lowest birth rates.

According to data obtained from the study, countries with the lowest birth rates in Europe included Luxembourg (at 1.38 births per woman), Greece (1.35), Cyprus (1.32), Italy (1.29), Spain (1.26) and Malta (1.23).

In the meantime, highest birth rates were observed in Czech Republic (at 1.71 births per woman), Denmark (1.73), Ireland (1.75), and Sweden and Romania (tied at 1.76). France was seen having the highest birth rate at 1.88.

Meanwhile, for 2018, the average birth rate for all of European Union (EU) was 1.55, as of 2018.