COVID19: Cyprus cases drop to 4, all travel related; average age at 30 from 41 years

Cyprus health authorities announced four new cases of coronavirus infections on Sunday, far from the worrying rate of double-digit infections reported daily over most of the past two weeks, with all four new Covid-19 cases linked to travel.

This follows Saturday’s reporting of 11 new SARS-CoV-2 cases, of which three were travel related. The total for the Republic of Cyprus now stands at 1,421 cases.

Of Sunday’s four new cases, three were traced from among 2,260 tests conducted at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and one result from 69 samples taken at the island’s general hospitals.

Two were a Romanian couple returning to Cyprus on Friday, and one was a Greek military official who also arrived on Friday. All three were asymptomatic.

The fourth case was a Cyprus resident who recently returned from Albania, but displayed the first symptoms and was admitted to hospital.

Health ministry data showed that the majority of positive cases from July 1 to August were local transmissions, numbering 250. A further 129 were travel related and 19 were ‘orphan cases’ that were subjected to contact tracing investigations to identify other infections.

Of the 1,396 cases reported to date, 935 had fully recovered and 27 had died, with 20 of the deaths directly linked to SARS-CoV-2.

The average age of the pandemic infections has dropped from 41 years to 30 years, suggesting that all age groups, even the younger ones, are equally susceptible to the virus. Of all the reported cases, 83% were in the 18-59 age group, 9% were infants and children and 8% were above 60.