Cyprus records another 32 COVID-19 cases

Cyprus announced on Wednesday another 32 confirmed COVID-19 cases with the total number of reported cases in the country reaching 526.

The 32 new cases were diagnosed from a total of 1,256 samples tested. The total number of cases were diagnosed after the completion of 14,273 lab tests by the licensed laboratories. The total number of confirmed cases includes ten cases located in the British Bases in Cyprus.

Speaking during a press conference, at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Leontios Kostrikis, member of the Advisory Body on the pandemic, said that 24 cases were found through tracing the contacts of previously confirmed cases and that authorities are investigating how the other 8 people who tested positive were infected.

In relation to four COVID-19 cases which have been since yesterday under investigation to find out how they contracted the virus, two have been found to have had a connection with a confirmed case. Investigation is ongoing as to how the other two patients contracted the virus, he said.

Out of the 526 total confirmed cases 390 concerned contacts, therefore the virus has been spread from within Cyprus.

Kostrikis also said that so far 52 people who have been hospitalized with the virus have recovered.

He pointed out that the number of new confirmed cases keeps our strategy "unchanged."

There are people with SARS-CoV-2 virus moving among the population and until they are found they are likely to transmit it to others.

He cautioned everyone to be very careful as certain people who contract the virus are asymptomatic “a fact which makes them even more dangerous.”

He called on people to continue to faithfully abide by the restrictive measures in the maximum possible degree, to take self-protection measures and to keep hygiene rules.

On his part, Dr Marios Loizou, Scientific Director at the Nicosia Directorate of the Cyprus State Health Services Organisation said that based on the data as of 1500 hours local time (1200 GMT) 24 people are in-patients at Famagusta General Hospital, which operates as the reference hospital, three of whom in the increased care unit.

Five patients were released, he added.

Loizou continued informing that in total 13 people are breathing with the help of a respirator, two in Limassol General Hospital Intensive Care Unit and 11 in Nicosia General Hospital Intensive Care Unit. Their condition, he noted, is “stable but critical.”

Another seven confirmed cases are treated in hospitals other than the reference hospital.

Loizou conveyed his own and everyone’s gratitude to the Ambulance Service.

Since March 7, 2020 the 1420 call center has received over 20,000 calls and the ambulance service managed over 9,000 incidents which had to do with dealing with COVID-19.

It sent out specialised crews to houses to collect over 800 samples from patients who had mobility issues or had other special circumstances.
Ambulances responded to over 3,625 urgent calls 950 of which had to do with COVID-19 symptoms.

The service completed 446 transfers of patients with suspicious symptoms from their place of residence to public hospitals and patients who had been confirmed to have COVID-19 from and to the reference hospital, he noted.