The government should re-evaluate and suspend its decision to abolish free rapid tests

 

Statement by Marina Savva, Member of the C.C. of AKEL

29 July 2021, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

Ahead of tomorrow’s Ministerial Council meeting, we again call on the government to suspend and re-evaluate its decision to abolish free rapid tests.

In the midst of a spike in the number of cases and given the guideline issued by the World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Control, access to free rapid tests for both those who have been vaccinated and those who have not, works as a preventative measure and should continue to do so.

Particularly in relation to working people, it is in AKEL’s view unacceptable that they should be financially burdened in order so as to have access to their work.

Unfortunately, after a year of the pandemic, instead of investing in strengthening the public health system and more specifically public hospitals, the government is confining itself to implementing measures that shift its own responsibility on to the shoulders of citizens and generate polarisation and division in society.

AKEL reiterates its appeal to the Government to immediately elaborate a concrete strategy aimed at persuading rather than coercing people, involving personal and specialist doctors to respond to people’s concerns and legitimate fears and to inform them convincingly and in a well-documented manner about the need for vaccination.