36 new coronavirus cases detected in Cyprus

The Republic of Cyprus detected 36 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, a figure that is much higher than levels being recorded recently.

The new cases, detected after 3,317 laboratory tests were conducted, raised total known cases since the virus broke out in March to 1,654.

A majority of 28 new cases were detected among samples collected from people who took the initiative to get tested. 18 of those involve players and staff of the local first division football team Ethnikos Achnas, while three are family members of one of the people in Ethnikos Achnas cluster.

An additional four are Czech employees of a company, and came to Cyprus on September 15 for training.

Another new case is a British national permanently residing in Cyprus who took the initiative to get tested after developing symptoms last week.

Also positive for the virus was a person who flew in from Lebanon on September 20 and took the test in order to return to Lebanon.

Two more cases were detected among the samples collected at general hospitals. One is a nurse at the Larnaca general hospital while the second got tested after developing symptoms.

Also among the new cases is a student of a special school in Larnaca, which was announced earlier on Wednesday by the health ministry.

Four more cases were detected through contact tracing. Three are contacts of a Nea Salamina football player, while the fourth is a family contact of a case announced on Monday, and which forms part of a new four-person cluster which also includes the Larnaca hospital’s nurse.

Wednesday’s final new case involves a person who was detected at a Cyprus airport. They flew into Larnaca from London on Tuesday.

The Famagusta general hospital is currently treating 12 coronavirus patients, one of which is in the ICU.

Current concerns are centres around the Larnaca district, where certain restrictions were imposed on Wednesday, while with two growing clusters involving football teams, the health minister will be chairing a meeting on Thursday with the Cyprus Football Association to coordinate efforts.