Nicosia, Dec 19 (IANS): Cyprus has imposed additional new restrictions on travellers from the UK after the latter country has reported a rapid spread of cases related to the Omicron Covid-19 variant, the Health Ministry in Nicosia said in a statement.

The Ministry said that the measures were due to the rapid increase in cases of the Omicron variant in the UK, reports Xinhua news agency.

Ministry sources said that health officials were forced to act without a prior announcement as they were worried over the possibility of a large number of Omicron cases among Cypriot university students and UK Cypriots who arrive for the Christmas and New Year holidays.

The statement said that all passengers over 12 years of age who arrive from the UK, and irrespective of their vaccination status, will have to stay in strict self-isolation in their residence until the result of an airport PCR test for Covid-19 is issued.

All UK passengers will be given a self-test package of five units for the purpose of making a self-test on five consecutive days in case their airport test was negative.

The measures were introduced after the Health Ministry announced on Friday a surge of Omicron infections, saying that 33 of them were related to a group of secondary school children and teachers who returned on December 1 from an educational visit to Glasgow, Scotland.