COVID19: Cypriots on holiday in Paphos among new cases

Cyprus on Monday confirmed another 12 new COVID-19 cases, seven were Cypriots tested randomly while on holiday in Paphos while two others were among tourist arrivals.

The daily count went up from seven reported on Sunday after more tests were carried out.

Monday’s cases were detected from 3,588 tests, bringing the total number of infections to 1,351 and 20 deaths.

In a worrying turn of events, seven of the cases involved Cypriot holidaymakers all found in Paphos after being randomly tested.

Two of them live in Nicosia, with one reporting coronavirus symptoms while another two are from Limassol.

Two more cases were on holiday from Larnaca and one was from the Famagusta district.

They were found after some 1,182 tests were carried out within the framework of 10,000 free tests carried out islandwide by the Health Ministry.

Another two of the infections had a recent travel history, both found after being randomly tested upon their arrival to Cyprus.

One case involves a woman travelling from Denmark with a group of friends for a vacation.

She was taken to the Eden Rehabilitation Centre in Tersefanou, Larnaca, while her friends were sent to self-isolate at a designated hotel.

An Austrian tourist was also found positive after flying in from Vienna.

Both cases arrived on Sunday.

Another three cases were found through the process of tracing close contacts of known cases.

The Health Ministry said one of the cases is connected to a cluster formed following a hen party making it 14 infections traced back to that social gathering.

Another case was a close contact of a person with a travel history while the third was infected by a family member.

According to the Health Ministry, there are now two patients being treated at Famagusta General, the reference hospital for COVID-19, with one of them in the Acute Care Unit (ACU).

They are said to be in a stable condition.