With schools set to reopen on Monday with in-person teaching, parents of secondary school pupils should ensure their children have a negative rapid antigen test, the education ministry said on Wednesday.

According to a draft bill submitted in parliament, private museums and the museums of Local Authorities will be partially subsidized by tax-paying citizens.

As Covid-19 bit hard, Cyprus went from a budget surplus to recording an annual deficit of €251.7 million (1.1% of GDP) in the first quarter of 2021, according to preliminary General Government fiscal results.

Close to 32% of the eligible population has received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine, with around 10% receiving both, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

The President’s Cabinet has approved the introduction of Coronapass and a set of other measures and modifications to current rules, as the Republic of Cyprus prepares to end its third pandemic lockdown after Sunday but not without legal questions.

Life sciences mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity totalled US$159b in 2020, down from US$306b in 2019, reaching one of the lowest levels since 2014, according to the 2021 EY M&A Firepower report. A single megadeal – AstraZeneca’s December purchase of Alexion Pharmaceuticals – accounted for a quarter of the annual life sciences M&A spend in 2020.

Cyprus Airways will launch direct flights from Larnaca and Malta on June 27 it announced on Tuesday, increasing the airline’s international destinations to 14.

Cypriots have built up their savings amid the lockdowns that began last year, recently released data show.

According to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan that the Finance Ministry submitted to Brussels, the target is to reinforce the resilience of the country’s economy. The total estimated budget is 1.25 billion euros, out of which 1.06 billion will be distributed in the form of funds and 0.2 billions in the form of loans.

As of tomorrow vaccinations by personal physicians of people 30 and over with AstraZeneca vaccines will begin, according to Andreas Polyneikis, president of the personal physicians’ company.