One coronavirus death, 21 new cases

Health authorities announced that a 62-year-old coronavirus patient with underlying health conditions who was being treated at the ICU of the Nicosia general hospital lost the battle with the virus on Wednesday, when 21 new case were also detected.

The Republic of Cyprus has so far recorded 24 deaths that were fully attributed to the virus, involving 17 men and seven women of an average age of 72.

Wednesday also saw 21 new coronavirus cases, which emerged after 2,095 tests were conducted, raising total known cases to 1,897.

Nine of the new cases were detected through contact tracing, one was detected among the samples collected at general hospitals, one was referred for testing by their GP, while another was a football player for the third-division team Chalkanoras Idaliou who is also a student at a Nicosia high school.

Nine more involved people who took the test at their own initiative, among them a person who flew in from India on September 29 and took the test in order to terminate his quarantine, despite the fact that 12 days hadn’t passed since his arrival, as required by health protocols. Another person flew in from London on October 3 with a negative test certificate and took the test in order to visit a relative, with the test coming back positive. Two more had flown in from England on September 30 with a negative test, but have now tested positive. According to the health ministry, one of the two had developed symptoms the day before the flight, but chose to fly anyway. Another case had also flown in from England on October 3. One other new case involves a Portuguese flight attendant who got tested as part of a routine check.

Currently, the Famagusta general hospital is treating four coronavirus patients, while three patients were discharged on Wednesday. Two more coronavirus patients are intubated at the Nicosia general hospital.