North reports first coronavirus case

The first coronavirus case has been reported in the Turkish occupied north of the island.

According to reports in the Turkish Cypriot media, a female German tourist aged 65, who was staying at a hotel in the Famagusta area, has tested positive for the virus after being quarantined on Monday night.

The woman arrived in the north through the airport in Tymbou (Ercan) with a group of 30 other people from the German town of Balingen.

The hotel, which Turkish Cypriot press named as the Salamis Otel, and guests staying there have been placed under quarantine, with workers of the hotel transferred to a second hotel in the area, where they have also been quarantined.

The group of tourists was placed in three different hotels in Famagusta, with Turkish Cypriot authorities reporting that they have tested the people who were seated near the woman on the flight.

The report from the north said the woman was responding well to treatment.

The case in the north comes after the Cyprus Republic announced its first two coronavirus cases on Monday.

Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou told a press conference the two cases were both Cypriot men – one aged 25 who had recently returned from a trip to Milan, Italy and a 64-year-old “health professional” working at a state hospital in Nicosia who returned from a trip to the UK.

“Two of the 50 samples were positive, so these are the first cases of the coronavirus in Cyprus…there is no need to panic,” said Ioannou.

He said self-hygiene was the best defence against the virus and urged anyone who has travelled to a country with a coronavirus outbreak and has symptoms of the disease to self-isolate.