The government ordered the stoppage of all types of outdoor-based services, including food delivery – to protect people from the unforgiving heat wave.
The island nation’s meteorological department has issued an orange alert – with the temperatures having reached 34 degrees Celsius in the hills, 43 degrees Celsius in the capital, and over 38 degrees along the coastline.
For this reason, the Cypriot Labour department issued an order mandating the stop of any kind of work involving the outdoors between the hours of noon and midday 4 pm.
The ban is binding on all types of delivery that involves construction and the use of two-wheelers.
Additionally, the health ministry has asked elders, children, and those otherwise vulnerable to stay indoors.
There is also a high chance of forest fires occurring – which is why the fire services have also been put on red alert.
The island nation is seeing lesser rainfall – 2024 being the tenth most parched in the last one-hundred-and-twenty-three years.
Wednesday’s temperatures were around 10 degrees above normal for June and climbed from Monday’s yellow alert when the thermometer peaked at 40 degrees.
The Meteorological Department is calling this series of events “unusual” and believe it has much to do with the situation of the weather in the eastern Mediterranean regions.
