17 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded in Cyprus on Sunday and one more death. This brings the total number of cases to 633. These include 10 people who were identified through contact tracing of known cases, one from tests being carried out to test 20,000 people and six whose history is still being investigated. Virologist Leontios Kostrikkis said the results showed the policy taken by the government is correct. He repeated an appeal to people to keep contacts to a minimum. The death brings to 16 the total number of people who have died with coronavirus. Of these, it is the cause of death for 11 people.
The testing of 20,000 of the most exposed people in the private and public sector continued on Sunday in a process that is expected to continue until the end of April. More than 6,000 tests are expected to be carried out on staff at all public health centres.
All staff at Larnaca general hospital will be tested for Covid-19 in the next 48 hours, it emerged on Sunday. The decision was taken as three people – one patient, one nurse and one doctor – in the hospital were among the 21 people found on Saturday to be have the virus.
A third batch of donated supplies from China is set to reach Cyprus in the coming days on a chartered flight, the embassy of China said on Sunday. “We are deeply moved by Cyprus’ invaluable friendship which we hold dearly. As Cyprus’ situation becomes all the more critical, China is ready to return the kindness and continue to offer as much support as we can as a true friend and reliable partner,” an announcement said. The third batch contains 5,000 pieces of protective gear, 417 testing kits for 10,008 individuals and 10,000 N95 masks from the government of China. It also contains 50,000 surgical masks donated by cities in China twinned with those in Cyprus. “The virus knows no borders but neither does love. Mutual trust and support is the best way to overcome the pandemic,” the embassy said. The announcement outlined that while China was battling the pandemic, President Nicos Anastasiades, House President Demetris Syllouris and Foreign Minister Nicos Christodoulides had sent letters to the Chinese leadership expressing sympathy and support, while ensuring the legal rights of the Chinese diaspora in Cyprus.
On Monday, Chinese Ambassador Huang Xingyuan and Christodoulides will attend a ceremony at the foreign ministry where the second batch of donated supplies from China which arrived in Larnaca on Saturday morning on a chartered flight will be officially handed over. It contained 20,600 FFP2 masks, 110,000 single use medical masks, 30,000 non-medical masks and 500 items non-medical protective gear. The first batch of items from China – 1,320 items of protective gear, 5,000 KN95 masks and 5,000 disposable medical masks – arrived on April 2. In the past two weeks, the embassy has also donated over 14,000 medical and non-medical disposable masks to Paphos municipality and hospitals, as well as government departments, the announcement outlined.
