Cyprus announced four more deaths of coronavirus patients, for a total seven in just 24 hours, with 165 new cases of SARS-CoV-2 on Wednesday, raising the number of all infections since the pandemic started in March to 6,461.
The latest deaths, mainly elderly people aged 62 to 92, raised the toll attributed to COVID-19 to 33, of whom 20 were men and 13 women. The average age is 75 years.
Of the 3,291 tests conducted and processed on Wednesday, 414 involved passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, resulting in only five positive results. The rest were identified through contact tracing of known infections, persons reporting at least one symptom to their GPs and referred for testing, or tests at hospitals for pre-admission.
The rising death rate, the number of new cases steadily above 100 and the state hospitals reaching capacity, have prompted the government to consider stricter measures to contain the virus, as the public does not seem to adhere to health and safety protocols, primarily in social gatherings.
President Nicos Anastasiades met the government’s scientific advisors on Monday, the ministers in charge of health, labour, education and justice on Tuesday and is scheduled to hold a full cabinet session on Wednesday evening, after which new measures are expected to be announced.
These are widely expected to be strict lockdown measures for Limassol and Paphos, where the biggest clusters of infections have appeared in recent weeks.
Two major clusters were also discovered in recent days, one at the Sokrateion old people’s care home in Limassol, of whom an elderly patient died on Tuesday, and the other among workers at the island’s biggest abattoir, employing mainly foreign workers, allegedly living in unhealthy conditions.
Tuesday’s results include 22 new infections linked to the 92 found at the CYPRA abattoir announced on Saturday, mainly from contacts of family members and colleagues, as well as from the Kato Moni village and nearby communities where the slaughterhouse is based.
In all, 73 patients are being treated at the Covid-19 referral hospital at Famagusta General, as well as special wards in other state hospitals.
