The Ministry of Health has issued additional information with regards to the additional tests to be carried out in the general population in order to help control COVID-19 as announced by the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Mr. Nicos Anastasssiades.
Taking into account the increase in the availability of the required consumables and the importance of conducting more laboratory tests to treat the pandemic from COVID-19 disease and in continuance to the more than 14,000 tests already performed on people with a history of epidemiology, but also listening to the desire of the citizens for more checks, the Council of Ministers decided today:
- Conducting epidemiological research on a random sample of 800 people across the whole of Cyprus in order to assess the percentage of people throughout Cyprus with active infection, but also to compare the percentage of active infection between age groups and areas all over Cyprus.
- Carrying out 20,000 laboratory tests, which will be completed within 20 days in collaboration with private laboratories, on a nationwide basis, that meet the criteria set by the Ministry of Health. The laboratory tests will be subsidized by the Ministry of Health to individuals in the public and private sectors, who, by decree, continue to work and are therefore more likely to be exposed to the virus.
The above decisions are part of the Government’s efforts to strengthen laboratory tests on the population of the territory of the Republic of Cyprus, and are in addition to the laboratory tests currently carried out, in the context of targeted tracking and investigation of suspected incidents. .
The results of these investigations, as well as the results of the controlled investigations in the Paphos and Aradippou areas, will significantly help the country in planning the existing and subsequent measures that the Government may need to take.
More details about the two programs of the Ministry of Health will be announced at a later stage.