Cyprus reported another four cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, with health authorities announcing that one more patient who had coronavirus has died but the virus was not the cause of death.
The latest fatality involves a 56-year-old man with serious underlying health issues, which, according to authorities, led to his death. The man was being treated at Nicosia General Hospital’s ICU.
The number of patients who had coronavirus and died is 21, but those whose death was attributed by doctors to COVID-19 remains at 15.
Eleven men and four women have died from the coronavirus with a median age of 73 years.
The four cases announced on Tuesday were identified after 1,250 tests were carried out, taking the total since the outbreak to 878 (including 10 in the British Bases).
From Tuesday’s data, no one was positive from 84 tests on frontline workers, neither out of 72 tests for employees in the retail food and beverage industry or care homes for the elderly.
Two people tested positive from 179 tests conducted in the context of tracking and tracing contacts of people that have been infected.
Another two people tested positive from 526 tests conducted privately.
According to the health services, since April 11 some 19,555 tests have been carried out on frontline workers in the public and private sector.
A new government testing scheme to cover 20,000 employees of retail stores and workers at construction sites was launched on Monday with results yet to be reported.
Presenting the epidemiological data regarding new COVID-19 cases, member of the epidemiological committee, Dr Leontios Kostrikis said that Tuesday’s low number of new cases shows that Cyprus is on the right track.
However, he urged people to abide by the guidelines and protective measures: “Despite being low, today’s results indicate that the virus is still present within our community. There is no room for complacency”.
Some 13 people are inpatients at Famagusta General, which operates as the COVID-19 reference hospital. Two of them are in the Acute Care Unit.
Their condition is described as stable, two people were discharged from the hospital on Tuesday.
Four patients are breathing with the help of a ventilator, one at Limassol General Hospital ICU and three at Nicosia General Hospital ICU.
One more patient is being treated at Nicosia General Hospital’s ICU but is not on a ventilator.
The condition of all patients in the ICUs is described as “critical but stable.”
