Health Ministry asks for additional funds for Covid-19 tests

Cyprus` Health Ministry has requested the Parliament to approve the disbursement of additional funds for new random tests and contact-tracing for Covid-19 as new cases have been on the rise in recent days, mainly due to multiple infection clusters in Larnaca district on the southern coast of the island.

The Ministry requested from Parliament to approve the disbursement of €2.9 million.

According to a letter sent to the parliamentary committee on Financial and Budgetary Affairs, the Ministry requests, among other things, the disbursement of €1.41 million for assigning new Covid-19 tests to private laboratories, as well as €0.7 million for new contact-tracing tests by the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics.

Furthermore, the Ministry requests an additional €453,986 for the acquisition of services for use of thermal imaging cameras in Cyprus’ two airports and to cover the needs of contact-tracing of the Cyprus Epidemiological Surveillance Unit, as well as €107,640 for hiring university students for part-time work for the coordination of the public health centres and an additional €0.28 million for hiring students for part-time work for the support to the Epidemiological Surveillance Unit.

So far Cyprus has carried out 369,461 tests which corresponds to 41.181 per 100,000 population.