Crowds of people wanting a free PCR test gathered outside Kyrenia Tourism harbour waiting for medical staff to arrive to perform the tests on Friday. Testing was announced as beginning at 1pm on Friday, however, staff arrived late because they had been testing people in apartments elsewhere.
There was concern about the lack of social distancing, however, most of those interviewed, said they preferred to wait. Some said that they had been in contact with a person infected with Covid-19 and wanted to find out it they had contracted the virus.
Cuma Kaştaş who works as a security guard said that he decided to have a test for both his own safety and environmental safety. “Not a doubt, but a [safety] measure. I am the site security officer. I decided to have a test for both my own safety and environmental safety. It is right to make such an application in Kyrenia. The hour does not matter. Our health is more important than anything, ” he said.
Tina Wingrove, from the UK who settled in Cyprus in March wanted to have a test for precautionary purposes; “If I have a virus in my body, I wanted to have a PCR test in order not to spread it and to be cautious not to cause contamination. If there is such a situation, I would like to know that I will not spread it to my neighbours, my family. Also, my husband works at the hospital. Therefore, we are at risk. I live in Kyrenia. The weather is very hot… Maybe an appointment system could be created for a PCR test planned to be done at this time. That would be better. So it wouldn’t be that crowded. When this happened, we took a risk again because of the crowd.“
The testing session was extended that evening because of the late arrival of the health team.
Yeniduzen
