By Gina Agapiou and Evie Andreou
The health ministry on Thursday confirmed 20 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total to 735.
The message from the experts at the briefing was ‘stay home at Easter’.
The new cases were identified from 2,905 tests.
Seven were identified from the testing of 600 people who came in contact with confirmed cases, two health professionals tested positive, while one person was tested after a private initiative.
Ten cases were identified from 1,724 tests as part of the 20,000 precautionary tests carried out on front-line employees and 6,000 tests on health professionals.
Virologist Dr Leontios Kostrikis said he was satisfied with the results. The new cases “reflect the behaviour of society and are the result of collective effort,” he said.
“We managed to stabilise the situation in Cyprus,” added clinical director of Okypy Dr Marios Loizou
According to Loizou, 19 patients are being treated at the Famagusta refence hospital. Three are being treated at the intensive care unit of the hospital while five patients have been released. In total, nine patients are intubated, three in Limassol and six in Nicosia. Their status is stable but critical, he said.
The Okypy official said people should stay at home during the holidays and resist having even small family gatherings. “This Easter, for the benefit of all of us, we will spend it at home, only with those with whom we live,” Loizou said. “The virus does not recognise the holidays”
No new coronavirus cases were announced in the north on Thursday, but concerns were voiced over the fact that a couple was accidentally found positive to the virus on Wednesday.
Until Wednesday, the north had reported 105 coronavirus cases and four deaths.
In total five people tested positive on Wednesday, among them a couple aged 82 and 78, from Trikomo, neither of whom had symptoms. The husband, who was to have surgery, tested positive for the virus during pre-surgery tests.
The head of main opposition Republican Turkish Party (CTP), Tufan Erhurman, said that the incident was an opportunity for more tests among the population since it was not known how the couple had contracted the virus and this means that the actual numbers of coronavirus cases may be different than the recorded ones.
Turkish Cypriot ‘deputy prime minister’ Kudret Ozersay, however, gave reassurances that health officials knew exactly how the couple had been infected, and that their contacts were thoroughly traced.
Erhurman also stressed the need to test people who continue to work outside of their homes pointing out that this is the only way to determine the actual number of cases, reports said.
