Coronavirus: Limassol restaurant caught operating, birthday party broken up (update 2)

A restaurant owner in Limassol has been fined after people were found eating and drinking in the establishment, police said on Thursday.

While in a separate incident shortly before midnight a police patrol car discovered a birthday party where 13 people were found celebrating in a house beyond the 9pm curfew.

All 13 were fined €300. It was the second birthday party raided by police in a week.

Elsewhere, while carrying out a total of 5,066 checks in the district in the 24 hours until Thursday morning, officers discovered a restaurant where two people were drinking alcohol at a table while a third was eating. The manager of the restaurant had not undergone a rapid test and was not wearing a mask.

The three customers were fined. The manager was charged and will appear in court on Thursday.

Police will also submit a request to suspend the operation of the restaurant until the trial as it operated without a licence and was not allowed to serve alcoholic beverages.

Limassol has consistently recorded a higher number of daily infections compared with the rest of Cyprus, prompting police to step up patrols in the district.

In total police fined 196 individuals and carried out 14,571 checks to control the spread of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours.

The number of checks in Nicosia was 2,887, in Limassol 5,066, in Larnaca 1,357, in Famagusta 1,906 and in Morphou 780.

Traffic police contributed with 1,111 inspections.

During 12 hours on Wednesday alone, 95 people were booked for various violations, more than one third of them, 34, in the Limassol district.