COVID19: Cyprus death rate continues to climb, cases drop

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Cyprus reported two more deaths on Sunday, hours after it announced stricter measures for passengers arriving from Britain, while the number of new COVID-19 cases dropped significantly to 242.

Passengers arriving in Cyprus from the U.K. must automatically self-isolate for 14-days from Monday after a potent new COVID-19 strain was discovered.

But Cyprus stopped short of an outright ban on flights from the UK as other European Union countries have done, such as Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy, while France and Germany are also considering similar bans.

The Health Ministry said that a 72 year old man died and an 89 year old woman, both with underlying health issues. The man had been admitted to Nicosia General hospital and the woman was being treated at Limassol General.

This raises the coronavirus death toll to 91, of which 42, or nearly half, in December alone, making it the deadliest month since the pandemic started.

To date, the death toll includes 59 men and 32 women, with an average age of 78.

 

Slight drop in new cases

The 242 new SARS-CoV-2 cases were somewhat less than the average 300-400 daily count throughout the past week, significantly below Saturday’s 419 and nearly half the record 457 announced on December 17.

These include 149 confirmations of the less-accurate antigen rapid tests from previous days, raising the total number of infections since March to 17,718.

During the past week, Cyprus announced it would embark on the first vaccinations on December 27 and on Saturday took delivery of two special freezers that will store the initial batch of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech.

Some 125 patients are being treated at state hospitals, of whom 28 are in critical state, up from the 115 and 22 the day before. Of these, 66 are at the Covid-referral clinic at Famagusta General hospital.

In all, 7,218 tests were conducted on Sunday – 1,831 employing the PCR molecular method and 5,387 rapid tests.

The new rapid tests produced 180 positive results that will require PCR confirmation over the next few days.

Larnaca had the biggest number of positive rapid test results, counting 75, followed by 43 in Nicosia, 34 in Limassol, 13 in Famagusta and 5 in Paphos. A further 5 positive results were identified from targeted testing at old people’s homes in Limassol.