COVID19: Cyprus cases drop, four deaths, hospitals full

Cyprus reported a second successive drop in new coronavirus cases on Saturday, down to 446 from 601 the day before, but four deaths were recorded.

The Health Ministry said four deaths were attributed to COVID-19, with the April toll rising to 16 and the 13-month total at 272.

To date, 179 men have died (66%) and 93 women, with an average age of 79 years.

One woman and three men died from COVID-19 on Saturday; the youngest was 59 and the oldest 87.

Three had no history of a COVID vaccine, but the 87-year-old man had been fully vaccinated.

The number of patients being treated in the Covid wards of state hospitals dipped from 205 on Friday to 204, of whom 52 are critical, two more from the previous day.

A lower 49,314 PCR and antigen rapid tests were conducted on Saturday, down from Friday’s record 63,207.

The test positivity rate fell to 0.90%, below the benchmark 1.00% and moving away from the 1.30% noted earlier this week.

The total of all infections since the pandemic reached 51,035.

Of these, 93 were identified through contact tracing; three tested positive among 1,273 samples taken from passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, 53 were diagnosed from private lab tests, and 274 were positive results from private initiative and the free national rapid testing programme.

The Health Ministry said that 113 of the positive rapid tests were in Limassol with a 0.88% positivity rate, followed by 75 in Nicosia (0.46%), 46 in Larnaca (0.64%), 21 in Paphos (0.44%) and 13 (0.59%) in the Famagusta district.

Cypriot residents aged 57 and 58 booked 4,000 vaccination appointments within the first hour of the vaccination portal opening on Saturday.

The majority 3,200 appointments were for the Pfizer vaccine and 800 for AstraZeneca, people, seemingly put off by the rare blood clotting incidents.

The portal had 15,000 appointments available for people aged 57 and 58 only.