Civil Defence Personnel and Volunteers in the fight against COVID-19

Defence Redefined

Published on 03/04/2020 at 13:49

Civil Defence continues to assist the state’s efforts to restrict the spread of coronavirus COVID-19 as well as to provide assistance to other government agencies in the enforcement of decrees.

Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency (KYPE), Senior Civil Defence Officer Nikolas Paris said that following an order from the Interior Ministry, the Civil Defence began cooperating with the Police to monitor the implementation of the March 24th decree.

“More specifically, it patrols Municipalities and transmits information to the police and / or Municipalities on issues that interest them. There are four two-hour patrols per district. The cars are staffed by Civil Defence volunteers, who work based on the rolling shift system. They are alone for public health reasons. In cars, in addition to being disinfected, the parts touched by each driver are disinfected prior to each use”, he added.  

Answering to a question whether there was a case in which a Civil Defence patrol notified the Police regarding any violation of a decree by citizens, Mr. Paris said that there were cases when the Police were notified and he also clarified that there was – and there can be – no involvement of the Civil Defence “because we do not have jurisdiction to control citizens”.

Furthermore, Mr Paris said that the Civil Defence Phone Service Center for Citizens’ had started with two service lines, but he added: “Because we receive more than a thousand phone calls a day, the lines have doubled, which are staffed by members of the Civil Defence, permanent staff and volunteers, with some support from the Refugee Care and Rehabilitation Service, following an order from the Ministry of Interior “.

In a clarifying question, Mr. Paris replied that although they are pan-Cypriot numbers starting from 22, for decentralization purposes three of the lines have been transferred to other Districts, where the District Directors take care of workshops, for shifts, and one line remains in the offices of the General Administration.

Asked what dominates the citizens’ questions, Mr. Paris said that mainly the people ask for clarifications on how they can move outside their homes.

“There are special cases that are not covered by the decree. For example, if someone takes care of a person and wants to go both to the pharmacy and the supermarket in one go, what should they do? Many times the SMS system does not respond, I imagine due to overload, and people want to know how to handle the issue. A decree is general, it cannot cover very special cases and mainly this is what people ask about.”

Asked if members of the Civil Defence also help citizens who cannot serve themselves at their homes, Mr. Paris said that this is not included in the duties of the Civil Defence at the moment.

“The task has been assigned to the Social Welfare Services based on the “Amphitrite” plan, but the Office of the Volunteer Commissioner has also been mobilized. The Civil Defence, based on the plan and the orders of the Ministry of Interior, will not do this for public health reasons, because its members are also a population “, he concluded.

With information from CNA

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