COVID19: New cases point to Larnaca clusters

Cyprus health authorities announced another seven new cases of SARS-CoV-2 on Friday with three of them connected to two known clusters in Larnaca.

The new cases take the total for the Republic of Cyprus to 1,565, following some 3,035 tests for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours.

Health Ministry officials said that three of the new coronavirus cases resulted from contact tracing among existing clusters.

One is a fellow worker of employees of the Ocean Basket restaurant chain in Larnaca (Phinikoudes) who were found positive on Tuesday and Thursday.

Another two cases are part of a cluster of infections started on 9 September but are described as being an offshoot of the cluster as they had not come into contact with “patient zero”.

This cluster has now grown to 18 infections.

Three more cases were found after samples were taken at private labs with one case involving a footballer of topflight club Nea Salamina, based in Larnaca.

The player, originally from Angola, arrived via Vienna from Portugal to join his team on Monday.

Reportedly, the player is 21-year-old striker Chico Banza, who played for Portuguese side CS Maritimo.

Nea Salamina has called off Friday’s training as all players need to be tested as required by the Health Ministry’s protocols.

The Larnaca team are set to play Doxa FC on Monday night.

The other two cases involve a person who developed symptoms and another who reported no symptoms and had no contact with a known case.

A seventh case was a person who reported having symptoms since Sunday but tested on Thursday.

Six patients are being treated at Famagusta General hospital, one of whom is in the Acute Care Unit (ACU), while another patient is being treated in intensive care at Nicosia General.