The health ministry announced 31 new Covid-19 cases on Friday evening, bringing the total number to 595.
Announcing the information, Dr Leontios Kostrikis said the new cases were a result of 819 tests.
Fifteen were traced to previously confirmed people infected with Covid-19 while another 15 were having their contact history investigated.
One person confirmed to have Covid-19 had recently travelled to the island.
“Today’s new cases are less than those yesterday. We are pleased with this, but 31 is still a high number and we must remain vigilant,” Kostrikis said.
The 595 positive cases in total are a result of 16,308 tests.
Out of 18 previously announced cases, of whom their contact history was being traced, links have been made to 11 of them. Fifty-eight people diagnosed with Covid-19 have now recovered.
The highest number of cases recorded so far was on April 1 when 58 Covid-19 infections were confirmed. Since then, there have been fewer reported cases each day but with some notable fluctuations.
A short recap of the most recent developments: 29 new cases on April 7, 32 new cases on April 8 and 38 new cases on April 9.
Cyprus reported its first coronavirus cases, almost exactly one month ago, on March 9.
“The numbers allow us to remain optimistic that the ray of light, mentioned by the president, will become clear provided that we continue to with the same determination with the measures,” said Kostrikis.
Also present at the health ministry’s briefing was Dr Marios Loizou, who said that: “I can point out that the effort we have all been making together has begun to pay off.”
One of the major talking points in the announcement was on the topic of the public wearing masks.
In recent days there has been a shift from some governments around the world which are now requiring people to wear masks when in public.
“The World Health Organisation has again reiterated its position on the public wearing masks, warning against the misuse,” Loizou said.
“They pointed to the false sense of safety that masks can lead to, resulting in negligence in adhering to more important measures such as social distancing and hand washing.”
He did, however, highlight that the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has not ruled out the possibility that in some situations greater usage of masks may be advised.
Loizou summarised the ECDC position as requiring the public to wear masks will depend on the epidemiological layout and congestion points in countries. The examples he gave were banks and supermarkets.
“This would be mainly to prevent the spread of the virus from asymptomatic carriers.”
He said that such a policy, of requiring people to wear masks in public, depends on two things. The course of the disease and the number of asymptomatic patients.
The government has set out a programme to test 20,000 people which will study and evaluate how many asymptomatic carriers are in the population.
In the north, three new Covid-19 cases were announced on Friday, bringing the total number to 99.
According to Yeni Duzen, ‘health minister’ Ali Pilli announced that 272 tests took place in the last 24 hours identifying three new cases.
All three cases came from abroad, including one passenger who arrived from the UK two days ago, and two others who had also come from abroad.
Authorities there performed 3,890 tests so far. “We are targeting to scan 15,000 people” Pilli said.
The ‘health minister’ emphasised arrivals from abroad carry a great risk.
At the same time however at 5pm on Friday a plane carrying 119 passengers arrived from Ankara.
According to the ‘transport minister’ Tolka Atakan, no more flights are scheduled next week, but authorities will be examining applications for repatriation.
Unficyp on Friday also confirmed the first coronavirus case amongst its peacekeeping personnel.
According to Unficyp, the staff member reported mild symptoms and was isolated immediately after testing positive for Covid-19.
“The individual is now being closely monitored by medical staff and the mission is conducting a robust process of contact tracing to prevent the further spread of the virus,” it said.
