COVID19: Little change in new cases, patient numbers

Cyprus reported 385 new coronavirus cases and 212 patients being treated for COVID-19 on Thursday, similar to Wednesday’s data, and the second day in a row without any deaths.

The health ministry said in its daily bulletin that 212 patients remain admitted in state hospitals, of whom 43 are critical, down from Wednesday’s 218 and 44, respectively.

Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou said earlier in the day that the bed capacity for Covid patients in state hospitals was recently increased from 350 to 400, with Paphos General hospital adding a Covid ward on Saturday.

March has had a slower toll with an average of one death per day or less, better than February’s 30 and last December and January that were the worst months on record with 76 deaths each.

The total since the pandemic started a year ago is 241.

The health ministry added that 45,598 PCR and antigen rapid tests were conducted on Thursday, diagnosing 385 new cases of SARS-CoV-2, for a positive test rate of 0.84%, an improvement of the 0.99% rate of the past two days. On Wednesday, there were 382 new cases.

Total infections since last March is now 41,111.

Thursday’s positive cases were diagnosed from 134 new cases identified through contact tracing, three new cases were among 532 passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, 69 were from tests in private labs and state hospitals, while 179 had positive results from rapid tests. Of these, 83 were in Limassol, 44 in Nicosia, 12 in Larnaca, 10 in Paphos and 5 in Famagusta district.

Some 756 samples from staff and residents at retirement homes all tested negative for COVID-19, while from 1,008 samples in industrial zones, only one tested positive. A further 9,967 tests in schools identified 9 new cases.