COVID19: Bad start to April with 4 deaths, patients up, cases down

April got off to a bad start in fighting the coronavirus in Cyprus with four deaths and an increase in patient numbers, but a drop in new COVID-19 cases to 309.

The health ministry said that the four deaths were all men, aged 47 to 87, all with underlying medical issues and none had been vaccinated.

This raised the death toll attributed to SARS-CoV-2 since the pandemic started to 260, of which 25 in March and 30 in February, while December and January were the worst months on record with 76 deaths each.

To date, 173 of the deaths have been male (67%) and 87 women with an average age of 79 years.

The health ministry’s daily Covid-bulletin said that 190 patients are presently admitted in six state hospitals, up from 176 the day before and nearing last Sunday’s 196. Of these, 46 are critical, up from 43 on Wednesday and equal to Tuesday’s 46.

A total of 43,914 PCR and rapid tests were conducted on Thursday, which based on the 309 diagnosed new COVID-19 cases results in a test positivity rate of 0.70%.

In all, Cyprus has had 46,173 coronavirus cases in the past year. Of these, 43 were critical, down from 46 the day before and 52 last Sunday.

Thursday’s new cases were discovered from 58 positive contact traces, seven positive tests in private labs and hospitals and 244 positive rapid test results.

For the first time in four months, most of the positive test results were in Nicosia with 94, Limassol close behind with 93, followed by Larnaca (36), Paphos (18) and Famagusta district (3).

Some 358 tests on staff and residents at retirement homes were all negative, as were 48 tests of soldiers serving in the National Guard.