AN OFFICIAL probe has confirmed the existence of hygiene problems at a Paphos hotel where 75 tourists fell foul to food poisoning late last month.
“Tests and analyses are still continuing, but it has been shown that there was indeed a problem (with hygiene),” Tefkros Koulountis, the Paphos municipal councillor in charge of cleanliness in the town, said yesterday. But Koulountis was keen to stress that the salmonella outbreak at the Avlida hotel was an “isolated incident” which in “no way” reflected on the state of play in the coastal resort town as a whole.
The state lab took samples from the Avlida after 75 tourists, including 60 elderly Austrians, had to be rushed to a local clinic with food poisoning symptoms the day after their arrival on May 30.
State broadcaster CyBC last week reported that the official investigation had pointed the finger at lax kitchen hygiene as the cause for the suspected salmonella outbreak. CyBC reported that two kitchen assistants had been allowed to continue working at the hotel despite coming down with salmonella.
Koulountis was yesterday loath to divulge details of the findings of the state lab investigation. “I am not a doctor, I cannot go into details,” he told the Cyprus Mail.
He promised the hygiene problems had now been dealt with. “We have intervened dynamically and we are also monitoring the situation. All necessary measures are being taken,” the municipal officer said.
“It was a isolated incident and the relevant services are taking all necessary measures. It would be wrong to tar the whole of Paphos with the same brush,” Koulountis said.
Avlida hotel management have tried to blame the outbreak on contaminated water in Paphos town, but local water authorities deny that there have been any problems with the water supply and only Avlida guests seem to have been affected by food poisoning.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
