Cyprus quarantines woman on flight to Israel

Cypriot health officials have quarantined a woman as a coronavirus high-risk, despite testing negative, after a private jet landed in Larnaca with reports saying a crew member had come into contact with Israel's first ever confirmed case.

(Click here for an update to the story)

Health ministry officials from a health monitoring unit sprang into action on Friday after a private jet that arrived from Israel to Larnaca International Airport was flagged as a potential CoVid-19 event.

According to the Cyprus News Agency, the health ministry had assessed an incoming flight from Israel as a possible coronavirus event, deeming at least one of four flight crew members a “high risk.”

The flight crew member was then transported to a special facility at Nicosia General Hospital. Local media said she would remain isolated for 14 days regardless of her nagative results.

Earlier this week, Cypriot Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou said that a designated area had been found in rural Nicosia where cases could be handled if tests are found to be positive. The minister also added that a confirmed case would mean that others considered “high risk” due to close proximity with a carrier would also need to be quarantined for 14 days.

It was understood that the woman currently quarantined in Nicosia was said to have come in close contact with another individual, an Israeli national, who tested positive on Friday.

Confirmed case and chartered flight to Israel

In Israel, the first case of coronavirus inside the country was confirmed Friday early morning, when eleven Israelis flew back home after being stranded for two weeks on the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship off the coast of Japan.

Israeli health officials said test results for the Wuhan bug came back negative for ten men, while a woman on that flight tested positive. It was not clear whether protocols were violated prior to her boarding the chartered flight from Japan to Israel.

"The patient is in quarantine and under supervision and this is not an infection that occurred in Israel,” officials said.

Israeli media said the plane carrying the passengers from Japan was brought to a remote area of Ben Gurion Airport just after 4am.

Cypriot authorities did not provide official confirmation on whether the plane that landed at Larnaca airport was the same jet that transported the 11 Israelis back home. 

Additional reports said a Bombardier Global 6000, which had been chartered by Israel’s Foreign Ministry for the evacuation flight, took off for an unknown destination. Knews understands that the confirmed carrier in Israel and the high risk case in Cyprus had been on the same chartered flight.