COVID19: Cyprus cases rocket after airport checks from Mykonos, Amsterdam

Cyprus recorded a jump of 30 COVID-19 cases on Monday after interim results from only 346 airport tests on arrivals mainly from Mykonos, Amsterdam and London.

It is among the highest number of daily coronavirus cases recorded in Cyprus since the outbreak.

The Health Ministry said from random checks at airports, the majority (17) of those who tested positive had arrived from the Greek island of Mykonos many of whom had a connection with each other.

They arrived in Cyprus on August 22.

Another 10 people tested positive after arriving from Amsterdam on August 23 while three more were found infected on a flight from London the same day.

Tracking and tracing the contacts of those who tested positive is underway, said the Health Ministry.

The total of COVID-19 cases has now spiked to 1,451 with another batch of results expected later on Monday.

Due to the number of infections found from those arriving from Amsterdam, The Netherlands has been removed from the safe travel list category B (negative COVID test required) to category C which effectively bans flights from the country.

As more people are testing positive after returning from a holiday abroad, the Health Ministry advised Cypriots to take a private test seven days after their return just to make sure.

Even if they tested negative during a random sample at the airport.

The ministry also underlined that anyone developing COV ID-19 symptoms (cough, fever, shortness of breath, tastelessness) should contact their GP immediately.