Authorities on Tuesday transferred around 600 migrants from an overcrowded reception centre in Kokkinotrimithia to a facility near Kofinou, in the district of Larnaca, after an outbreak of the coronavirus.

An interior ministry spokesperson said all those considered contacts of the cases detected in the previous days were being transported to Limnes to be quarantined in line with health protocols.

Over 80 infections had been reportedly detected at Pournara over the past few days. Those infected have been transferred to a rehabilitation facility in Larnaca.

Around 600 who were considered contacts were transported to Limnes on Tuesday morning using around 30 army trucks.

Pournara, designed as a reception camp with a capacity for 800 people, was hosting around 2,500 in appalling conditions, witnessed by MPs during a visit last week.

The facility at Limnes had been constructed to host migrants whose applications were rejected and were in the process of repatriation.

It has been mostly empty since its competition a few months ago.