Limassol has re-emerged as the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in Cyprus, with the city recording up to 80 per cent of cases on certain days.
Over the past three days 238 coronavirus cases were detected overall, with Thursday’s 104 cases unsettling health experts and prompting President Nicos Anastasiades to call an emergency meeting on Saturday.
“More than half of the cases every day are in Limassol, sometimes it’s 70-80 per cent, in the last ten days this is the situation,” Margarita Kyriacou, health minister spokesperson, told the Cyprus Mail on Friday morning.
The focus of these cases centre around younger people.
“Most of the cases, over half, are people aged under forty,” Kyriacou said.
Health experts in Cyprus and throughout Europe have warned that measures are not being adhered to, spurring a steep rise in cases.
“From the data that we have every day, it’s clear that the measures are not being followed in workplaces, in bars and within social networking – people just have to follow the protocols but they’re not,” Kyriacou said.
Covid-19 deaths are currently five times lower than they were in March and April, when the first wave hit the continent, the WHO’s European director, Dr Hans Kluge, told a news conference on Thursday.
Kluge reiterated that the current wave crashing upon Europe is due to more young people testing positive, but also added that the lower mortality rate is because that demographic – younger people – is less likely to die from Covid-19.
Cyprus’ 14-day cumulative number of Covid-19 deaths, per 100,000, is currently at 0.3, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
This is far below Spain (3.5), France (1.6), the UK (1.5) but higher than Norway (0.1), Finland (0.1) and Sweden (0.2).
Malta is at 2.0 and Iceland 0.0.
The latest ECDC data available is from October 15.
The health ministry issued instructions on Tuesday regarding the organisation of events in Nicosia and Limassol following the implementation of stricter social distancing measures that came into force today following a surge in the number of coronavirus cases.
As regards events such as conferences, concerts and theatrical and musical performances, the health ministry has set the maximum number of people at 75 indoors and 150 outdoors for both towns, irrespective of the size of the venues and provided distancing rules are met. All guests must remain seated.
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