Turkish Cypriot ‘health minister’ Ali Pilli said on Wednesday the north was not ruling out a full lockdown for two or three weeks if necessary.

The announcement comes after strong indications that there will be a full lockdown imposed by the Cyprus government for which a decision will be made on Friday.

Pilli also said vaccinations would start in the north on January 15 and they hope to have 60 per cent of people vaccinated by March.

Pilli said that the number of Covid cases was under control and the number of patients was not so far overwhelming the hospitals.

“At the moment we do not see the need for a complete lockdown. If we look internationally, there are countries that did it. If necessary, we can close for 15-20 days to end the pandemic in a shorter period of time and for the benefit of public health,” he said.

He said the north has not had any problems with passengers arrivals who must all quarantine.

“The cases that came from the Greek Cypriot side caused more difficulties and for this reason we took strict measures. “We will increase them if necessary,” he added, referring to Turkish Cypriot workers crossing back and forth.

Pilli said the first to be vaccinated would be hospital staff and the elderly in nursing homes. The Turkish

Cypriot side was also testing for the mutated variant by sending samples to Turkey.

The population number given by the ‘statistical service’ to the ‘health ministry’ for vaccination was 382,230 based on 2019 figures.

Meanwhile, CNA reported that six Turkish Cypriots died from Covid in London within the past 24 hours. Around 100 died in the UK during the first wave of the pandemic in March and April.