COVID19: Cyprus cases take an upward direction

Cyprus COVID-19 cases are still climbing with the Health Ministry on Saturday confirming another 22 cases from 3,477 tests, taking the total to 1,811 since the outbreak.

There are chains of transmission in Larnaca, at the Famagusta district village of Achna with its local football team the source and a cluster in Limassol linked to a female high school student.

The 22 cases announced are an increase on the 17 confirmed on Friday with Cyprus witnessing a prolonged period of double-digit daily infections.

Ten patients are being treated at Famagusta General Hospital, four of whom are in the increased care unit.

Two other patients are being treated in the intensive care unit of Nicosia General Hospital.

Three of the new cases were detected out of 184 tests from contact tracing, one was from the cluster of Ethnikos Achnas FC and another from the cluster of seven formed by a high school student in Limassol.

The other contact tracing case was from a family cluster now numbering four.

Six of the new cases had a travel history. They were airport passenger arrivals from Moscow (1), London (2) and Athens (3) detected from 1,255 samples.

Another case was detected out of 101 samples taken at the Microbiology Laboratories of General Hospitals.

It concerned a British national who came to Cyprus from England.

Eight of the new cases were found out of 831 samples taken upon private initiative, one of them is a footballer at ASIL Lysis.

Four other cases were found out of 285 tests taken after GP referrals.

One an employee at the British Bases who complained of a sore throat.

Three people from Russia also tested positive after mandatory tests before their 14-day quarantine expired.

Meanwhile, no cases were found out of 398 tests under a Cyprus Football Association scheme for footballers or from 423 samples among pupils and school staff.