After an early lockdown held down the number of cases and deaths, 30 unexpected cases of COVID-19 were detected on Cyprus, 10 of them tied to soccer teams.

Those were found among 2,685 tests were carried out, bringing the total of COVID-19 cases to 1,743 in a country that had relatively one of the best records in the world in dealing with the pandemic.

Clusters were discovered among soccer clubs, with four players from second division ASIL Lysis  testing positive, including a teenage student training with the club’s academy, The Financial Mirror said.

Another four of these cases were family members of players at topflight club Ethnikos Achnas, one more was related to an Omonia player while a teen training with Nea Salamina’s academy team was also positive.

Another case came from a member of the United Nations peacekeeping force, UNFICYP, who recently arrived from the hard-hit United Kingdom, among eight who had recently traveled out of the country and returned.

The other seven had recently traveled to Germany, Lebanon, Ukraine, Russia and the UK, the report said, adding that there was an outbreak in Larnaca centered on the Ocean Basket restaurant in Phinikoudes.

A cluster from a high school student in Limassol has grown to four, as a fellow student of the teenage girl who contracted the virus also tested positive while three cases were found among people who arrived from Greece.

In total 13 people were found to be positive through the Health Ministry’s track and trace testing scheme but the Health Ministry said it was worried because more people who should be marked down as close contacts of known cases are not being revealed to the track and tracing teams without explaining why they haven't been.