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The epidemiological image of various countries has been reevaluated by the Epidemiological Monitoring and Control Unit for Infectious Diseases of the Medical Services and Public Health Services, in regard to the COVID-19 disease. The evaluation is based on the epidemiological indicators of countries, such as: the effetive reproduction number of R(t) for SARS-CoV-2, the number of new diagnoses, the number of laboratory tests, the rate of mortality per 100,000 inhabitants, the estimated prevalence and the impact and classification by the World Health Organization (WHO) as these indicators are presented in valid data bases.

The following classification of countries, based on the epidemiological risk assessment, is extremely dynamic and may be modified at any given moment as the pandemic evolves and epidemiological data change. For this reason, new facts would be released and the list of countries would be upgraded frequently.

On the basis of the above, the evaluation carried out has classified countries as follows:

Category A - Low-risk countries at the present stage

In this category are classified countries with effective (Rt) reproduction number less than 1 or/and small number of new diagnosed outbreaks (<1/100,000 inhabitants per day) or/and low or very low mortality from COVID-19 (<5-10/100,000 inhabitants) or/and classification of sporadic cases or clusters of cases according to the WHO or/and at least satisfactory laboratory testing (>3000 tests/100,000 inhabitants):

• Australia
• Austria
• Croatia
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland
• Germany
• Greece
• Switzerland
• Japan
• Hungary
• Iceland
• Latvia
• Lichtenstein
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Malta
• Norway
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• South Korea

Category B - Countries with possible low risk but more uncertainty compared to those of category A

In this category are classified countries with effective (Rt) reproduction number greater than 1 or/and number of new diagnosed outbreaks >1/100,000 inhabitants per day or/and increased mortality COVID-19 (>10/100,000 inhabitants) or/and limited laboratory testing (<2000 tests/100,000 inhabitants) or lack of WHO classification:

• Bulgaria
• Belgium
• France
• Ireland
• Israel
• Italy
• Lebanon
• Jordan
• Netherlands
• Spain
• Poland
• Romania
• Serbia
• United Arab Emirates

It should be noted that passengers coming from Category A countries are not required to present a laboratory test certificate.

Passengers coming from Category B countries are required to have carried out a laboratory test by a recognised laboratory at least during the last 72 hours prior to departure and possess a Certificate showing a negative PCR for COVID-19.

All passengers, regardless of country category, shall be obliged to file an application for the CyprusFlightPass (https://cyprusflightpass.gov.cy/) within 24 hours before the departure of their flight.

For reasons of protecting Public Health and monitoring the epidemiological situation a random laboratory testing on passengers of selected arriving flights shall take place.

( DC )