Cyprus detects 15 new cases as clusters grow

The Cyprus health ministry announced that 15 new coronavirus cases were detected on Tuesday, among which was an additional member of the Nea Salamina football club, swelling the cluster that formed there to 20 people.

The new cases detected on Tuesday, when 2,709 tests were conducted, raised total known cases to 1,618.

According to the health ministry, 10 of Tuesday’s cases involved people who took the initiative to get tested. In addition to the eight announced on Tuesday morning involving players and staff of the local first division football club Nea Salamina, a ninth was detected later in the day, increasing the number of people in the specific cluster to 20.

The tenth person who took the initiative to get tested forms part of another cluster developing in Larnaca, involving employees of the Ocean Basket restaurant at Finikoudes. The cluster now consists of four cases, as three other cases were announced on September 15, 17, and 18. Tuesday’s case had been instructed to self-isolate after the detection of the cluster’s first case, and tested positive after getting tested privately as per the instructions of the restaurant management.

Two more cases were detected among the samples collected at airports. Both arrived from Monaco on Monday but on different flights, as one landed in Larnaca and the other in Paphos.

An additional two cases were detected through contact tracing efforts. One is a family contact of a case announced on September 20, who had a history of travel to Birmingham. Tuesday’s case was on the same flight. The second is a contact of a case announced on September 18.

Tuesday’s final case was detected among the samples collected at general hospitals, and involves a person who developed symptoms last week.

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