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| - Breakaway northern Cyprus on Wednesday announced a suspension of inbound flights after a dramatic rise in coronavirus cases, as the divided island's total topped the 2,000 mark. The north has declared four deaths and 494 confirmed infections but has seen a jump in new cases, registering 163 positive tests in the first nine days of September. Mustafa Sofi, head of the north's civil aviation authority, said inbound flights were being halted until Sunday night, with the exception of emergency flights and for military and medical planes. Outbound flights will still be allowed. The north requires new arrivals to be quarantined for seven to 14 days, depending on their previous itinerary. Officials say they are running out of hotel and other rooms for self-isolation. On Tuesday, the Turkish Cypriots also announced the closure until October 1 of schools, clubs, discos, cinemas, theatres and casinos, a major tourist draw from Turkey where they are banned. Only three new Covid-19 cases were recorded Wednesday in the internationally-recognised Republic of Cyprus, which has a population roughly three times larger than the north. The latest cases raised the combined tally on the Eastern Mediterranean island to 2,008, with the new tally of 1,514 in the south. The Republic of Cyprus issued a commercial flight ban in March as part of lockdown measures, but the ban was lifted for a restricted number of countries on June 9. The holiday island's tourism industry, backbone of the economy, has been hard hit on both sides of the divide. Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey occupied its northern third in response to a coup engineered by the military junta in Athens seeking to unite the island with Greece. The breakaway region in 1983 declared itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Flights to and from the north are authorised only through Turkey, the sole country to recognise the TRNC. Decades of stop-start talks, mostly under UN auspices, have failed to achieve reconciliation. str/fo/hc/pvh
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