Cyprus has succeeded in bringing down daily cases of COVID-19 to a trickle as health authorities reported just one new infection on Tuesday which was ‘imported’.
Daily cases have been kept in single-digit figures for 11 consecutive days, following a week of fluctuating rates of coronavirus.
Tuesday’s only case involves a Russian woman with a travel history, as she recently arrived from Russia to visit her family living permanently on the island.
As the protocol states, the woman had been self-isolating since her arrival from Russia and found to be positive after taking a test two days before ending her 14-day quarantine.
She is reported to be asymptomatic.
Tuesday’s results were reported after a total of 2,797 tests were carried out, bringing the Republic’s COVID-19 total to 1,511.
No positive tests came back from 1,204 samples taken from passengers on flights and Cypriots returning to the island.
Similarly, no positive cases were found among some 134 tests carried out on contacts of known cases, or some 133 tests carried out on teachers and school staff.
The Health Ministry said three patients are being treated at the COVID-19 reference hospital at Famagusta General while one is at the Nicosia General’s ICU on a ventilator.
A second patient, a 76-year-old man being treated at Nicosia General died on Monday with deaths attributed to COVID-19 rising to 22.
Meanwhile, as cases drop in the Republic, infections in the Turkish Cypriot community have spiked with 106 new cases reported in just a week.
Between September 1 and 7, 106 COVID-19 cases were reported in the north, taking their total to 437 with authorities announcing a record 26 new cases both Monday and Saturday.
Turkish Cypriot authorities on Tuesday reinstated a partial lockdown to control the coronavirus pandemic in the occupied north of Cyprus until 1 October.
With the exception of first- and second-year elementary students, the rest of the school students are to return to class on 1 October.
Nightclubs, discos, children’s playgrounds, and parks are to close with authorities in the north placing a ban on social events such as weddings.
