Cyprus will let British tourists who have had both COVID vaccination doses into the country without restrictions from 1 May. Rabeya Lima reports.
The deputy tourism minister of Cyprus, Savvas Perdios, told the island’s news agency: “We have informed the British government that as of 1 May we shall facilitate the arrival in Cyprus of those British nationals who have been inoculated with vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency, so that they can come here without needing a negative test and without needing to quarantine.”
Cyprus has been in and out of lockdown for about a year but its corona virus outbreak has been mild compared to other countries.
By Thursday, it had recorded a total of 36,004 infections and 232 deaths. Authorities have also introduced widespread testing, with almost everyone obliged to take a test once a week.
According to Boris Johnson’s roadmap out of England’s third national lockdown, the earliest possible date for the resumption of international holidays is 17 May.
UK ministers are considering whether and how to facilitate the introduction of vaccine certificates or “passports” for people who wanted to travel to other countries that demanded them, in what could become a global approach whereby countries are likely to require proof of vaccination to allow safe travel.