Two deaths announced on Friday from COVID-19 and 410 new infections confirmed December as the worst month since the pandemic started, accounting for nearly half the death toll of 87.
The Health Ministry said that the two men, aged 61 and 89, raised the month’s total to 38.
The 61 year old man had an aggravated medical history and was being treated at the intensive care unit of Nicosia General hospital. The second man, with underlying health issues, died at the Covid-referral clinic at Famagusta General, where 59 more patients have been admitted.
In all, 115 patients are currently being treated for coronavirus at state hospitals, of whom 25 are critical, unchanged from Thursday.
Officials said 12,042 tests were conducted on Friday – 4,132 using the more accurate PCR molecular method and 7,910 antigen rapid tests, that produce results in up to 30 minutes, may have a 3-5% margin of error and thus require PCR confirmation.
The health ministry said that the 410 new SARS-CoV-2 cases included 297 positive results diagnosed from PCR tests and 113 confirmations of rapid tests from previous days. These were slightly lower than the 306 positive PCRs and 151 rapid test confirmations on Thursday, when a record 457 cases were reported.
Of the new rapid tests on Friday, 199 were positive and will require PCR confirmation.
Nicosia is new Covid hotspot
The capital Nicosia once again accounted for 87 new cases, the biggest number of positive infections, followed by Larnaca (60), Limassol (25), Paphos (7) and Famagusta (4). Five soldiers serving in the National Guard tested positive in targeted rapid tests and 11 more cases were discovered from private testing.
Nicosia has overtaken Limassol as the island’s COVID-19 hotspot as more than half of all cases diagnosed in the last 14 days were reported in the district, while Larnaca and Famagusta also had high rates.
Out of a total of 4,425 cases diagnosed between November 30 and December 13, some 2,373 were reported in the Nicosia district, followed by Larnaca with 1,050.
Limassol and Paphos were forced to adopt harsher lockdown measures in the second half of November, after these two towns reported record infections and uncontrolled clusters forming earlier that month.
The worrying rate forced the government to impose a ‘light lockdown’ until December 31, including shutting all malls and restaurants, bars, cafés, cinemas and theatres. High school and university classes have gone back to online lessons.
Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou announced on Thursday Cyprus will join the EU’s “vaccination days” programme on December 27, earlier than the initially planned January date.
For our daily news updates on COVID-19, follow the link: https://www.financialmirror.com/covid-19-cyprus/
