Nea Salamina players, staff violate quarantine

The local first division football club Nea Salamina announced eight coronavirus cases involving players and staff, piling onto the 11 already detected among the club in recent days, with the health ministry revealing Tuesday that the majority of the new cases failed to self-isolate as instructed due to being contacts of those previously announced.

On Tuesday, the Nea Salamina football club announced that eight of its players and staff were found positive for coronavirus after an additional 11 had been announced positive on September 19 and 20.

Commenting on the cases detected among staff and players of the club, which now amount to 19 in total, the health ministry said that among the eight new cases that were detected on Tuesday, were six who had been deemed contacts of the 11 cases that were previously detected among the club.

“For these people, as well as for the rest of those whom the Club declared as close contacts, procedures had been launched so that they could be tested. At the same time, from the onset, clear written instructions were given to the management of the Club for the isolation of these persons, who were also informed of the protocol that must be followed as close contacts,” the health ministry said.

Despite this, the ministry added, those six had violated the given instructions, endangering public health, as they followed instructions given by the Club for all players and staff to get tested at a private lab, violating their quarantine requirement.

The health ministry stressed that since two of the eight new cases weren’t declared as contacts of the club’s previously-announced cases, and wanting to ensure that all contacts are traced, it called for any person who may have come into contact with any Nea Salamina staff or player after September 17 to contact 1412.

Concern spikes for Larnaca infection chains

The Nea Salamina cluster involving 19 cases is just one of four clusters recently detected in the Larnaca district.

The first and largest infection chain was detected at the Kiti Bishopric, and includes 24 positive coronavirus cases.

Another cluster involving nine cases also formed at the Golden Bay Hotel, while a fourth one developed among staff of the Ocean Basket at Finikoudes, currently involving four people.

The Larnaca mayor Andreas Vyras said Tuesday that he spoke with health minister Constantinos Ioannou on how to move forward in view of the rising number of cases being detected in Larnaca.

Vyras said that the health minister admitted that “the ministry and the epidemiological team is concerned about the various chains of infection that have been detected recently in Larnaca, but decisions have not been taken yet regarding localized measures for the city.”

He said that if cases continue to accumulate in the coming days, “certain measures will likely be imposed.”