An elderly man died on Friday, with the number of new coronavirus cases slowing throughout the week, as coronavirus testing continues at unprecedented levels.
The Health Ministry said that an 82 year old man, with underlying health issues, succumbed at Nicosia General Hospital, raising the death toll for January to 56 and the total to date to 179.
One in 10 patients who contracted COVID-19 died in the second week of January with the month looking as grim as December which was the deadliest month on record since the coronavirus outbreak with 76.
At the same time, the ministry said that the number of patients being treated in local hospitals also receded, dropping to 179 from a record 907 on December 29.
That dramatic increase had prompted the government to impose a second lockdown on January 10, which it is already considering gradually lifting as of the end of the month.
However, the number of patients who are critical and have been admitted to the intensive care wards, remains unchanged at 58, the same level throughout the week.
The number of patients admitted to the Covid-reference clinic at Famagusta General also remains unchanged, at 61 on Friday, similar to the previous days.
Two new patients were registered at the Makarios maternity hospital in Nicosia, which had been Covid-free for a several days.
The health ministry added that 9,635 tests were conducted with the results in the last 24 hours diagnosing 122 new cases of SARS-CoV-2.
This raised the total of all infections since the pandemic started to 29,758 or just over 3% of the entire population.
Cyprus has one of the highest COVID-19 testing rates in Europe according to its population, as it has conducted nearly 1.3 million coronavirus tests since the start of the Pandemic in March.
In all, 1,718 PCR molecular tests were conducted and 7,917 antigen rapid tests.
Of these, 37 were traced to contacts of previous infections, and 44 were positive from the rapid tests. Some 187 samples from passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports were negative for COVID-19.
Of the free national rapid test programme, 16 were diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 in Limassol, 12 in Nicosia, 6 in Paphos, 5 in Larnaca and 3 in Famagusta district.
No new cases were traced from among 272 tests at old people’s homes. However, two were positive from 982 tests in the police force.
