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.
U.S. President Donald Trump fired General Timothy Haugh as director of the National Security Agency on Thursday, according to two officials familiar with the decision, and congressional Democrats denounced the removal of the nonpartisan official from a top security post.
Israel stepped up airstrikes on Syria, declaring the attacks a warning to the new rulers in Damascus as it accused their ally Turkey of trying to turn the country into a Turkish protectorate.
The Trump administration moved forward with the sale of more than 20,000 US-made assault rifles to Israel last month, according to a document seen by Reuters, pushing ahead with a sale that the administration of former president Joe Biden had delayed.
The Ministry of Justice said seven companies reportedly based in the UAE and sanctioned by the United States for ties to Sudan do not operate in the country.
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