Updates from Cyprus
President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, said the passing of composer and political activist Mikis Theodorakis on Thursday at the age of 96 is a great loss for Greek culture.
In a message on Twitter, President Anastasiades said “today we have lost the ecumenical Mikis Theodorakis.
We have lost Mikis of the resistance, the composer who inspired dreams and high goals”, adding the “loss is enormous for Greek culture”.
Source: Cyprus News Agency
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikos Christodoulides, said Thursday that a wind of change is sweeping across the Eastern Mediterranean and wider Middle East, as like-minded countries in the region, with an exclusively positive agenda that is inclusive, come together to promote a vision of cooperation, peace and stability.
He also stressed that what is of utmost importance is for the EU to support these efforts, to be more actively engaged in the region, and not merely follow and react to developments.
The Minister, was speaking at a panel discussion entitled “Mediterranean: A Geostrategic Chessboard”, held in the framework of the Bled Strategic Forum which takes place annually in the Slovenian town with the same name.
Source: Cyprus News Agency
Defense Minister Charalampos Petrides stressed the need for a stronger common European defense. Petrides attended the European Union Foreign Affairs Meeting composed of Defense Ministers held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, completed on Thursday.
During the meeting, the Ministers had the opportunity to discuss the latest developments in Afghanistan, Libya, the Western Balkans, Mozambique and the Sahel region.
Source: Cyprus News Agency
President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, reaffirmed his country’s commitment to further enhancing cooperation with Cyprus, as well as to efforts aimed at resolving the Cyprus problem.
According to an announcement circulated by PIO, the new Ambassador of the Republic of Cyprus to the Federal Republic of Germany, Maria Papakyriakou, presented her credentials to President Steinmeier, at a ceremony held Wednesday, at the Schloss Bellevue Palace, the official seat of the Federal Presidency in Berlin.
During a tete-a-tete meeting Ambassador Papakyriakou conveyed to President Steinmeier the cordial greetings of Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades, along with the latter’s wishes for the continued prosperity of the German people.
Source: Cyprus News Agency
Cyprus Finance Minister Constantinos Petrides welcomed Eurostat’s data which showed that Cyprus marked the highest decline in unemployment rate, noting that the data highlight the success of the government’s policies.
According to Eurostat, Cyprus unemployment rate fell to 5.2% in July 2021 over 7.9% in the respective period of last year, while Cyprus marked the highest reduction of jobless persons, namely 34.3% year on year compared with 9.4% of the EU average.
Recalling that the poverty risk in Cyprus declined to the lowest level since 2007, Petrides said “these official data show the success of the government’s policy, especially if one considers the economic crisis as a result of the (Covid) pandemic.”
The government will continue to exercise economic policy aiming to safeguard the interests of the people and we call on everybody to joi
Source: Cyprus News Agency
Cyprus is participating in the multinational military drill «Bright Star 2021» that takes place in Egypt between 2-17 September with the participation of 21 countries.
Also participating is Greece with air, sea and land forces.
Bright Star is a series of military training exercises hosted in Egypt in cooperation with the US every two years. It was last held in 2018, as the training was cancelled in 2020 due to the Covid-19.
During the last drill, the US, UAE, Saudi Arabia, France, Britain, Jordan and Italy also took part as well as another 16 countries as observers.
Source: Cyprus News Agency
Passenger traffic shows signs of recovery after 18 months of many challenges due to the pandemic, Hermes Airports says in a press release it issued on Thursday.
It points out that despite the reluctance of a significant portion of the population to travel abroad and the complicated control procedures at airports, this year 50 airlines flew from Cyprus, compared to 70 in 2019, while most of them will continue to fly to Cyprus during the winter months.
Furthermore, it notes that in the first eight months of 2021 passenger traffic was 2,511,239, (33% of the same period in 2019), which demonstrates that we still have a long way to go until we reach the pre-pandemic figures.
Source: Cyprus News Agency
Inflation in Cyprus spiked by an annual 5% pushed upwards mainly by rising energy prices, according to data released by the Cyprus Statistical Service of Cyprus.
The Consumer Price Index increased by 1.59 units and reached 104.09 units compared to 102.50 units in July 2021. Inflation in Cyprus increased for the fifth consecutive month.
For the period January-August 2021, the CPI increased by 1.5% compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, Cystat added.
According to Cystat, compared to August 2020, the largest changes were monitored in the categories Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels with 14.4%, Transport 10.8% and Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages 8.2%.
In terms of economic origin, the largest changes when compared to the index of August 2020 were recorded in Electricity with 39.8%, Petroleum pr
Source: Cyprus News Agency
The Ministry of Health announced Thursday the death of an 83 year old woman to COVID19, bringing the total number of deceased to 508 (327 men and 181 women). Their median age is 76.5 years.
In addition, 134 patients are in hospitals, 45 of whom in a serious condition, while 79.11% of them are not vaccinated. Meanwhile, 17 post-COVID patients remain in ICUs and are intubated.
In the last 24 hours 52,758 tests were carried out and 235 new infections were diagnosed. The positivity rate stands at 0.45%.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, 114,366 people were infected in Cyprus.
Out of the 45 patients who are in a critical condition in hospitals 19 are intubated. In the Famagusta General Hospital there are 25 patients, 20 are in the Nicosia General Hospital, 44 are being treated in the Limassol General Hospital, 9 in the Larnaka Ge
Source: Cyprus News Agency
Johnson & Johnson said on Tuesday its experimental vaccine failed to provide sufficient protection against HIV in sub-Saharan Africa to young women who accounted for a large number of infections last year.
The results from the mid-stage study are the latest setback to efforts to develop a vaccine to prevent HIV or human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS that had infected over 37 million people globally as of 2020.
“Although this is certainly not the study outcome for which we had hoped, we must apply the knowledge learned from the … trial and continue our efforts to find a vaccine that will be protective against HIV,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Despite the discovery of effective treatments that can put the virus in remission, experts say an HIV vaccine is critical to eradicating the virus.
The mid-stage study testing the J&J vaccine included 2,600 women participants across five Southern African countries, where women and girls accounted for over 60% of all new HIV infections last year.
Researchers found that 63 participants who received placebo and 51 who were administered the J&J vaccine got HIV infection, resulting in a vaccine efficacy of 25.2%.
The vaccine was found to be safe with no serious side effects reported, but the study will not continue based on the efficacy data, J&J said.
The trial of the vaccine was supported by the NIAID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
J&J said it was studying the safety and efficacy of a different experimental HIV vaccine among men who have sex with men, and transgender persons. The trial, conducted in the Americas and Europe, is expected to be completed in March 2024.
Source: Voice of America