COVID19: Cyprus cases jump to five, all linked to repatriation

Cyprus confirmed five COVID-19 cases on Friday with all the new infections linked to people returning from the UK and Qatar on repatriation flights.

The total number of cases in Cyprus has now gone up to 980 and only 18 deaths, the Health Ministry announced.

According to the Health Ministry, three cases involve people who have recently returned to Cyprus from the UK, a fourth person who tested positive was a close contact of a known case who had also recently returned from Britain.

The fifth case involved a person who had recently returned from Qatar’s capital Doha.

Cyprus confirmed the five new coronavirus cases on Friday from a total of 1,289 tests.

Some 55 tests conducted on school students and teachers and 173 tests on employees at hairdressers, barbers, and tattoo parlours came back negative.

Two patients are still hospitalized at the reference hospital Famagusta General, while another two patients are being treated on ventilators at the Intensive Care Unit of Nicosia General Hospital.