Concerns over foreign nationals living in cramped conditions was one of the issues raised at Wednesday’s daily health ministry briefing, but there are currently no plans for mass testing.
Experts have warned that some of the packed conditions in which migrants live would exacerbate the spread of the virus should an infection occur there.
Rights groups and NGOs have for some time been seeking to draw attention to the challenges and dangers faced by migrants and asylum seekers amid the pandemic.
The issue was raised by health ministry spokesperson Margarita Kyriacou who asked virologist Leontios Kostrikis, who is advising the government, to expand on comments he made expressing concern that some groups within the population have not been tested.
“You have seen what has happened in Greece, in regards to places where migrants live closely together,” Kostrikis said.
“And we have seen here in Cyprus the situation with the bakery in Aradippou where people lived closely together in apartments and worked together.”
The incident in Greece to which Kostrikis referred to concerns the 150 people who tested positive for Covid-19 at a quarantined seaside hotel housing 470 asylum seekers from Africa. None of them displayed symptoms.
The case in Cyprus which Kostrikis referred to is the bakery in Aradippou where 12 people tested positive for the virus last week.
Kostrikis said that so far in Cyprus there have not been large-scale epidemiological studies to assess the situation on “non-Cypriots”.
“This is of major importance as some industries are set to open in which many foreign nationals work and we have to take this into consideration,” he said.
Studies should be carried out which take this into account and evaluate how the pandemic could evolve should such people contract the virus, he said.
Speaking to the Cyprus Mail later, Kyriacou said that more data is needed in this regard but there are currently no plans for mass testing.
Kyriacou did point to the government programme which is testing 20,000 workers and said tests can be done through there.
“If they are still working then their employee has to get them tested,” she said. “This is under the decree of the ministry which states workers must be tested and employers will pay for it if they are working in service industries.”
Last week, the immigrant support group Kisa said the government “violates national, European and international legislation and at the same time puts at serious risk the health of asylum seekers, migrants and public health in general.”
Kisa said it has proceeded with legal measures, including reporting the situation to the European Court of Human Rights.
Earlier on Wednesday the prime minister of Nepal KP Sharma Oli spoke with President Nicos Anastasiades over the phone to express concern and ensure the safety of Nepalese nationals in Cyprus during the pandemic.
“I had fruitful conversation with HE the President of Cyprus @AnastasiadesCY over phone this afternoon. I have been informed that Nepali nationals are being taken care of by the Government of Cyprus and efforts will be made to see that no Nepali national faces difficulty in future,” Oli wrote on Twitter.
