Αuthorities announced 9 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday

Nine new COVID-19 cases were detected in Cyprus after completing 2,893 laboratory tests, authorities announced on Thursday. The total number of cases detected in Cyprus rose to 1,663, the Ministry of Health said.

Five positive cases were detected from contact tracing, two emerged from people who tested on their initiative, one case concerns a passenger who arrived in Cyprus and one positive test was detected at the Microbiology Lab of Famagusta General Hospital.

Out of the five cases detected from contact tracing, one is a nurse working at Larnaca General Hospital and is a contact of the nurse found to be COVID-19 positive on Wednesday. Three more people are close contacts of the family of the nurse. This cluster has now 8 cases, including the 4 announced today.
 
The fifth person detected from contact tracing is the wife of a case announced on September 22.

Out of the two cases detected on people’s private initiative, one was symptoms-free and was tested at the initiative of the employer. The second person is a woman who traveled from Nepal, via Qatar, to Cyprus on September 18 and was tested before her employment. She is also without symptoms.
 
A foreign national who arrived in Larnaca airport from Frankfurt on September 23 also tested positive.
 
The case detected at the Microbiology Lab of Famagusta Hospital is a foreign national who started to show symptoms on September 21 and went to the Hospital two days later.
 
The Ministry of Health further clarifies that the coach found to be positive, is a football player of the Ethnikos Achnas team and was included in the cases announced on Wednesday. For the moment, no positive cases have been found in a school in Aradippou. Those who remain in self-isolation, are those who came in contact with the coach/football player, the Ministry says.
 
More specifically, two cases were detected after testing 687 samples from private initiative, one case was found at the Microbiology Labs after testing 256 samples, one case emerged from 1,073 tests on passengers arriving to Cyprus and five cases were detected after testing 132 samples as part of contact tracing.
 
No positive cases were found after testing 132 samples in the framework of a program of referrals by GPs, 435 samples as part of a program to test 5,000 people aged 18-40 and 178 samples in the framework of a program to test pupils, teachers and school staff.
 
In total, 12 patients are treated at Famagusta Genera Hospital, one of them at the advanced care unit.