One more death, a 77-year-old man, was also announced, bringing the total to seven. Two of the sixteen new cases involved people that arrived from abroad, four from contacts with other cases, and ten of which were still being investigated.

“This means that we are still investigating to find out where the person was,” said virologist Leontios Kostrikkis about the ten cases still being investigated.

He added the new cases arose from a group of 400 tests, which were processed, saying in total 6,847 tests had been conducted.

“The ministry of health today made the clear the seriousness of the situation,” Kostrikkis said.

On Sunday a 68-year-old man who had been in the Nicosia hospital ICU also died.

Commenting on the deaths, Dr Marios Loizou, clinical director of Okypy, said so far, six were men and one woman. The average age of death is 66 and five of the seven were individuals with underlying health issues.

Loizou added that as of 3pm, Famagusta general was treating 24 cases with five in intensive care.

“Ten individuals have been intubated, three at the intensive care in Limassol general and seven at the intensive care in Nicosia,” Loizou said.

He added their situation is critical, but stable.

He added 80 per cent of the cases, will contract mild symptoms, while another 15-20 per cent will need to be hospitalised, and of those five per cent will need treatment in intensive care units.

“We don’t want to get there. The goal should be to not have any more cases,” he said.

Commenting on the number of cases of unknown origin, Kostrikkis said the total in Cyprus was nine, while 130 of the 230 were through contacts with confirmed cases.

He added another 22 people have recovered from the virus.

Asked, why random virus checks were not being conducted, the health ministry spokesperson said tests for the virus were being conducted on individuals, who encountered other cases.

Source: Cyprus Mail