COVID19: Cyprus infections surge past 40,000 cases

Cyprus reported one death from COVID-19 on Tuesday, 475 new coronavirus cases and 221 patients, pushing the death toll to 241 and 40,344 infections since the pandemic started.

The health ministry said that a 73 year old man died at Nicosia General hospital, with 160 of those who have died being men (66%) and 81 women, with an average age of 79 years.

The number of patients admitted to five state hospitals leaped to 221, up from 208 on Monday and 205 on Sunday, of whom 42 are critical, an increase from 40 on Monday and 37 on Sunday.

Health officials said that although some wards are operating at capacity, the Cyprus health system can at present accommodate 300 patients.

Epidemiologists expect the infection numbers to rise after many people took to the streets to celebrate what would have been the annual carnival parade in Limassol, many of whom ignored personal safety measures imposed by the recent lockdown regulations.

The number of tests doubled to 47,884 as Monday was a public holiday and fewer people opted for the free national antigen rapid test programme.

The ‘positivity rate’ rose from 0.94% for the last two days to 0.99%, resulting in 475 new cases of SARS-CoV-2, up from 218 on Monday, but half of the test samples.

Of these, 163 were identified through contact tracing, ten were positive among 1,403 samples taken from passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 42 were diagnosed from testing at private labs and hospitals.

A further 260 resulting from rapid tests, 129 or half of whom were in Limassol, 66 in Nicosia, 21 in Larnaca, 13 in Paphos and 9 in Famagusta.

Some 1,187 tests of staff and residents at retirement homes all tested negative, as did one passenger who had arrived from the U.K. and in accordance with health protocols remained in quarantine for seven days, prior to be released to return home.