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A week is a long time in politics - and also it seems in pandemics. So the governments of Cyprus, both North and South, are tightening restrictions. Only residents allowed in, with some minor diplomatic exceptions that wouldn’t have included us. Ditto with crossing the border between North and South in either direction. Happily, our best guess is that the North is a safer place to be. In fact safer than much of the world. There have been five cases here of covid-19, four of them German tourists and one local. Anyone who has arrived in the last 14 days, including residents, is required to self-isolate for 14 days. So essentially we’ve put in the first four. And now have acquired what looks to us like close to another ten days’ food. Meanwhile, there are some pretty strict requirements for everybody:
A 14-day administrative leave was issued for all public personnel except for police officers, firefighters, health workers, civilian aviation employees and finance authorities. All businesses except for pharmacies, gas stations, bakeries and supermarkets were also ordered to close during the same period. The shutdown for schools ordered on March 10, when the first case was diagnosed, was also extended to March 27.
In fact in line with WHO recommendations and more or less the opposite of the UK’s herd immunity theory.
Nothing comparable in our not all that short lifetime. The polio scare doesn’t come close. Hard to predict how this one will play out, but in most ways there’s nowhere we’d rather be. Lovely spot we’re staying in, temperatures around 20, quiet, beautiful (once we’re free to wander around town), fresh produce, local wine. Reminds us a little of the time the Icelandic volcano eruption kept us in London for a few bonus days - a halcyon time under ironically clear blue skies. We had on occasion thought of retiring to Cyprus. Maybe we’ve already done so.
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