Foreign Ministry in lockdown after diplomat tests positive for COVID-19

A diplomat at the Foreign Ministry has tested positive for the virus, the Cyprus News Agency reported on Thursday, with the diplomat said to have come in contact with a small number of coworkers at the Ministry which was placed on lockdown on Wednesday night.

After the diplomat was confirmed as a coronavirus carrier, Foreign Minister Nicos Christodoulides instructed that the Foreign Ministry be placed in lockdown so that the premises could be disinfected and in order to see operations resume by Thursday afternoon.

It remains unclear whether the diplomat was among the 58 new cases announced by the Health Ministry Wednesday evening, or whether he would be part of a new batch of confirmed cases expected to be announced in the daily briefing later on Thursday.

Meanwhile, a sum of 12,651 Cypriot nationals abroad had registered within 24 hours of the launching of the new website, connect2cy, by the Foreign Ministry in order to map the presence of Cyprus citizens across the globe amid the coronavirus crisis.

Of those registered so far, 60 per cent were students scattered across 100 countries, with the majority being in the UK, Greece, Germany, the Netherlands, and the US.