Israel, Cyprus reach tourism deal for vaccinated travelers

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

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

Last week, Israel reached a similar deal with Greece.

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

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

Anastasiades 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.