A PARTY of Cockermouth teenagers have tested positive for Covid after returning from a week in Zante.

The former Cockermouth School pupils were all contact traced and tested soon after they got back from the Greek island, with seven of the eight girls testing positive.

A county council spokesman said: "There is not thought to be any risk to the wider public. They were all contact traced very quickly after they got back."

Colin Cox, Cumbria's director of public health, said: "The local Track and Trace team is aware of a group who have recently returned from holiday, some of whom who have tested positive for COVID-19.

"The group members have been spoken to, as have their contacts, and all are following the public health advice given.

"There is no wider risk to the general public and we thank the group members for their cooperation.”

There have been various reports of young British tourists returning from Zante and testing positive.

200 passengers on a flight from the Greek island to Wales at the end of last week were told to self-isolate after coronavirus cases were confirmed.

The plane was “full of selfish ‘covidiots’”, a traveller has said.

There were 16 cases of Covid-19 linked to people who took the Tui flight to Cardiff on August 25, and officials know that seven of those were infectious or potentially infectious while on the flight, according to Dr Gwen Lowe, consultant in communicable disease control for Public Health Wales.

In the previous week, 11 young people from Plymouth tested positive for covid after returning from Zante.

Dr Lowe said there have been about 30 cases in Wales in the last week that have come back from Zante, confirmed in people who were on different flights and staying in different locations.

Stephanie Whitfield was on the Tui flight to Cardiff and described how passengers were not wearing masks correctly and just seemed to “disregard the rules”.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Lots of the people were wearing the masks underneath their noses or even underneath their chins.

"They were taking the masks off to talk to friends and they were going up and down the aisles to talk to their friends without their masks on.”

Restrictions have been imposed in Zante following the outbreaks. These include: mandatory use of face masks in indoor and outdoor public spaces; a ban on gatherings of more than nine people; a limit of four people per table in any restaurant, except for cases where the party consists of family members, where the limit is six.

Live events, celebrations, fairs and markets have all been suspended and curfews imposed on venues.

The positive tests come following an announcement on Friday that customers who had visited a Cockermouth pub the previous weekend were advised to get tested, as they may have come into contact with someone who subsequently tested positive.

"As a precaution, anyone attending The Huntsman pub on Friday 21 August from 10pm onwards is now being advised to get tested for Covid-19," a county council spokesman said.