Daily count climbs ahead of new measures

The Republic of Cyprus reported 26 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, bringing the grand total to 1385 a day after the highest number of daily tests carried out since the virus outbreak in early March.

According to the health ministry’s epidemiological unit, the new cases were detected from 3372 laboratory tests, where seven cases emerged through contact tracing, one was detected at the airport, six through private initiatives, one through a doctor referral, and eleven through a migrant monitoring programme.

The Cyprus News Agency reported that a Czech national was among the positive cases after she was detected by airport health officials upon arriving to the island on holiday.

One other case, which emerged after symptoms and a visit to a primary care physician, involved a person with travel history to Slovenia and Serbia.

Six other cases were detected on private initiative, two of them are Cypriots who had a travel history and returned from Mykonos and Thessaloniki, and the other four are persons who had symptoms and did the test privately.

One person was being treated at Famagusta General Hospital while another patient was reportedly intubated in the Intensive Care Unit at the Nicosia General.

New government measures were expected to be announced on Friday in an effort to combat an ongoing spike of coronavirus cases that has alarmed officials. New measures could last through January 2021 according to some reports.

Turkish Cypriot media in the north also reported higher numbers in COVID-19 cases in recent days.