Cyprus has recorded its first cases of a COVID-19 variant first detected in India, its health ministry said on Wednesday, adding it involved individuals who were swiftly isolated and quarantined after arriving on the island.
Authorities said the variant was found in four people who tested positive for COVID-19, while the South African variant was found in two individuals.
They had arrived from India, Pakistan, the Philippines and Nepal, countries from which people need special permission to travel to Cyprus, with testing before or upon arrival and a compulsory two-week quarantine.
The individuals were placed in compulsory quarantine and isolation and had no contact with other people, the ministry said, reporting on the results of specialised tests on cases 'mostly' recorded in April.
Cyprus has recorded 348 deaths from COVID-19, and 71,398 infections. COVID-19 cases spiked in March and April, triggering a third lockdown.
Numbers are now markedly lower following widespread testing and an inoculation programme to vaccinate 65 per cent of the population by the end of June.
A man missing for more than 26 years has been found alive in his neighbour's cellar, just a few hundred metres from his family home. Omar bin Omran was reportedly kidnapped as a teenager and was discovered on Sunday.
China will always be a good neighbor, friend and partner of mutual trust with Russia, the state television quoted China president Xi Jinping as saying, as he mets Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is no longer in a life-threatening condition after he was shot in an assassination attempt when leaving a government meeting on Wednesday, a government minister said.
US President Joe Biden and Republican rival Donald Trump on Wednesday agreed to face off in two debates on June 27 and Sept. 10, setting up the highest stakes moments yet of the race for the White House.
The number of people killed by weekend flash floods and mud slides in Indonesia's West Sumatra province has risen to 67 and 20 are still missing, authorities said on Thursday, as the government plans to relocate survivors to safer areas.