Israel, Cyprus reach tourism deal for vaccinated travelers

Israel and Cyprus anunced a tourism agreement Sunday to allow citizens who have been vaccinated against coronavirus to travel between countries without need to quarantine.

agreement between two Mediterranean countries is a step toward restoring ir tourism industries, which have been hit hard by nearly year-long pandemic. Both countries have large tourism sectors.

Last week, Israel reached a similar deal with Greece.

“This opens up possibility of restarting tourism in near future,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “Cypriot tourists in Israel and Israeli tourists in Cyprus.”

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasies said he expected deal to go into effect on April 1.

Anastasies also said he was “very interested” in getting more details about a possible COVID-19 treatment being developed by Israel's Ichilov hospital and said that Cyprus would participate in upcoming clinical trials.