Concerns about the large number of cases announced yesterday, expressed the member of the Advisory Scientific Committee, Professor of Microbiology / Molecular Virology of the Medical School of the University of Nicosia Dr. Petros Karagiannis, noting that second thoughts will be that is needed.
In his statements to KYPE, Professor Karagiannis, referring to the announcement of yesterday's cases, noted that the number was quite high and creates concern.
"I think this was also due to the fact that some (samples) were collected over the weekend that were analyzed yesterday. I hope this will not be repeated today and tomorrow because if it is repeated, it means that instead of seeing a descent we see an ascent ".
Asked to comment on the growing incidence in the free Famagusta and Nicosia areas, he said: are moving. The biggest concern is what will happen with the most traffic that will occur when the bazaar is open for the holidays. "I hope people are very careful otherwise we will have further outbreaks."
Asked if a local lockdown will be imposed in free Famagusta due to the escalation, he replied that "this will be decided by the Minister of Health who is also responsible for the decrees".
Dr. Karagiannis pointed out that "we must be very careful because the weather conditions in recent days are what the virus expected. There is no better means of transmitting the virus than indoors. And when we do not apply the measures of self-safety or self-protection indoors and especially the use of the mask, which we emphasize is the best we can have indoors, then we will be exposed to the virus and we will get stuck ".
Asked if additional measures will be imposed due to the growing trend of cases, he noted that the measures are valid until December 13. "So we have to give them some time to perform. If they do not work, the Minister himself said that we should reconsider what we will do. On the other hand, we are seeing an improvement in the situation this week in Limassol and Paphos, which seems to be a result of the measures taken in previous weeks. That is how we see the positive impact at the moment ", he added.
He pointed out that we should give time to the measures that have been implemented horizontally throughout Cyprus to see if they will work to the same degree and if not there will be second thoughts.
Asked if there will be relaxations during the holidays, Professor Karagiannis said that "no one can predict it at the moment. We have three weeks until then. I hope our epidemiological picture is such that it will allow it ".
Asked if Cyprus is ready for vaccinations, he said yes.
"The information I have is that we also have refrigerators and plans have been made for how the vaccines will be moved to the places where the vaccinations will take place. "Of course the Ministry is waiting for the licensing, but Britain will start vaccinations with the specific vaccines that we will get from the first week of January, from this week or from the beginning of the next", he added.
In Britain, he noted, they are not waiting for the license, they are convinced that the results are the best, that the vaccine is safe, they have ordered 50 million doses and they will move on. Turkey has also ordered several vaccines from China and will proceed with vaccinations without waiting for further licensing, he said.
Source: KYPE