Answers for the reasons that were decided the measures concerning the dining areas and the gyms were given by the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Specialist and member of the epidemiological team of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Maria Koliou, speaking on the show Mesimeri kai Kati.
According to Dr. Koliou, “in Cyprus, as long as the restaurants were open, the number of cases was very high. I'm not talking about restaurants, I'm talking about cafes where a lot of people gather. There may be table seats in the cafeterias but the young people sit tightly together and when they stay up late at night they drink and do not follow the rules for a while. That is why the specific measure was taken ".
He added, "Because many restaurant licenses are common to cafeterias, they are difficult to separate. I agree that restaurants follow the rules. However, we had entire transmission chains from cafes, such as first in Limassol and then in other cities. "
Regarding the reasons that led to the suspension of the operation of the gyms, Dr. Koliou explained that "they were closed because there were outbreaks that started from gyms in Paphos. It took time for cases to be found in gyms due to the fact that we had a local lockdown in Limassol and Paphos. Let us consider that this measure will be of short duration and if there is no detection of cases, it can be changed ".
Finally, Dr. Koliou referred to how the epidemiological picture of Cyprus can be improved and explained that, "the first issue and very important is to stabilize the incidents in the Intensive Care Units and not to increase them further. The second is that the number of hospital admissions should not continue. to increase and not to break out the large series of incidents that we have experienced so far, such as in the slaughterhouse, nursing homes, closed structures, etc., which is very serious ".
Source: Sigmalive