COVID19: Cyprus cases drop to 111, hospital admissions rise

Cyprus reported a lower number of 111 daily cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections on Monday, but the hospital admissions rate continues to rise at a worrying pace with a record 85 patients being treated at state hospitals putting a strain on the national health system.

This number was increased from the 77 patients being treated in hospitals on Sunday, up from 69 on Saturday, that also saw a record daily number of cases at 314.

The new COVID-19 cases raised the national total infections since the pandemic started to 6,098, with 2,111 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, fewer than on other days.

A health ministry spokesperson told the Financial Mirror that the labs processing the samples do not work on Sundays, despite this being a national crisis.

“Due to the preceding weekend, the number of lab test results is clearly reduced. Some 968 tests were conducted on passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, resulting in 9 positive cases.

“This means that the remaining 102 positive cases identified on Monday were traced from only 1,143 samples. Thus. the rate of coronavirus cases is one in 11 being tested and they are mainly local transmissions.

“The rate of positive cases and persons approached by contact tracing is also stable at one in every eight,” the spokesperson added.

The government’s epidemiological advisors have been calling for the issue of more hospital space as the referral hospital at Famagusta General is near capacity, and the authorities are considering using a ward at Limassol General and taking up more space in the special wing of Nicosia General.