COVID19: 1 death, new cases up, fewer patients

Cyprus reported one death, a small increase in new coronavirus cases to 167 and fewer hospitalisations on Monday, with 150 patients admitted in hospitals, as the country took bolder steps out of the Lockdown III.

As of Monday, further COVID-19 restrictions were lifted with weddings back on, a later curfew and no ‘safe pass’ needed for outdoor activities, including restaurants, cafes, theatres, cinemas, while the night-time curfew has been pushed back to midnight from 11 pm.

The health ministry said in its daily Covid bulletin that a 56 year old man died at Limassol General hospital, with the death toll for May rising to 35 and the total since the pandemic started to 347.

To date, 230 of those who died since the pandemic started 230 were male (66%) and 117 females, with an average age of 77.5%.

 

Patient hospitalisations down

The ministry’s report added that 150 patients are currently being treated for coronavirus in six state hospitals, down from 157 on Sunday, while the number of critical cases has also retreated, dropping to 46, from 50 the day before.

Some 62,304 PCR and antigen rapid tests were conducted on Monday, which, when factoring in the 167 new cases of SARS-CoV-2 generated a benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate of 0.27%, lower than the risk level of 1.00%.

In all, Cyprus has had 71,231 infections during the past 14 months.

The day’s new COVID-19 cases included 32 identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections, five passengers tested positive from among 7,329 tested at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 32 diagnosed from private lab and hospital tests.

A further 98 were identified from the national rapid testing programme, of which 44 were in Nicosia (test positivity rate of 0.25%), 27 in Limassol (0.25%), 15 in Larnaca (0.22%), 5 in Famagusta district (0.17%) and one in Paphos (0.02%).

Testing also included 844 samples taken from residents and staff at retirement homes, all of whom were negative for SARS-CoV-2, while four students among 6,895 tests in high schools were positive.