Coronavirus: Paphos mall workers demonstrate

Workers at the Kings Avenue mall in Paphos demonstrated outside the shopping centre on Saturday demanding the closure of the mall as a precaution against the spread of the new coronavirus.

About 20 people from five different shops gathered outside the mall’s entrance at 11.30am on Saturday calling for the closure of the shopping centre but two hours later they all returned to work.

“We informed other shops to support us, but they were all waiting for each other to start,” manager of Jean Spot Michalis Neophytou told Cyprus Mail after the protest.

“We were waiting for instructions from our managers, some of us can’t afford to lose our jobs,” a salesperson who did not participate in the protest told Cyprus Mail.

The reason for the protest, according to Neophytou, is the large number of tourists visiting the mall and a rumour suggesting a suspected coronavirus case was found in a café there the previous day.

“There aren’t many locals visiting, the few customers we have are tourists,” he said.

Neophytou explained that business was also affected as normally on Saturdays the shop sees about 400 people walk through its door while this Saturday only around 30 people had entered.

“Why should we stay open anyway?” Neophytou asked. “There is no point risking my health for a few hundred euros”.

All staff members at Jean Spot started wearing gloves this week as a safety measure.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.