Cyprus to Reopen Its Borders for Several EU/Schengen Nationals in Two Phases
Cyprus will allow nationals of various countries to enter its territory as the Coronavirus cases have started to decrease, the official portal of Cyprus tourism announces.
According to a statement of the portal, Cyprus will reopen its doors for tourism, after “having successfully dealt with the Covid-19 epidemic,”
Countries, the nationals of which are permitted to enter Cyprus are divided into two categories, A and B, based on the internationally available epidemiological data. Countries that belong to category A will be eligible to enter in the first phase, whereas those that belong to category B will be eligible to enter in the second phase.
“We expect full containment of the virus by the end of this week which means that on June 9 we will open our airports again for business as usual and that’s very very important,” the Deputy Tourism Minister Savvas Perdios said regarding the decision.
Countries included in the A category, the nationals of which will be eligible to enter from June 9, when the first stage starts, are as follows:
- Malta
- Greece
- Bulgaria
- Norway
- Austria
- Finland
- Slovakia
- Hungary
- Israel
- Denmark
- Germany
- Slovenia
- Lithuania
Countries included in the B category, the nationals of which will be eligible to enter from June 20, when the second stage starts, are as follows:
- Switzerland
- Czech Republic
- Poland
- Romania
- Croatia
- Estonia
An entry ban on the citizens of the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Spain, and Italy will remain in place, until further notice. At the same time, the Ryanair airlines have announced that flights between the UK, Italy, France, Cyprus and other destinations will be resumed from July 1.
If persons test positive for Coronavirus after visiting, the Cypriot government will reimburse the travel costs.
On March 15, Cyprus decided to close its borders for 15 days to all foreign nationals, President Nicos Anastasiades announced, the Reuters reported.
Exempted from this decision have been Cypriots and Europeans working on the island, as well as persons with permits in a precautionary move against Coronavirus.
In April, the Cyprus government announced that the country took several measures related to the entry of foreigners and travel, as an effort to stop the further spread of the COVID-19.
Last month, Greece, Cyprus and Israel discussed the possibility of creating a “corona corridor” in a bid to revive the tourism sector, which has been highly affected by the pandemic.
According to Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, this move is an effort to attract tourists who under certain circumstances are not willing to travel far in the coming months, but might be more open to visiting neighbouring countries.
