COVID19: 1 death, daily cases remain below 100

Cyprus reported one death on Sunday and new coronavirus infections remained in double digits for the second day, as the number of patient hospitalisations were unchanged at 115.

The health ministry said that a 91 year old man died raising the death toll for May to 42 and to 354 since the pandemic started.

May was the third-worst month during the past 14 months, after March had 25 deaths and 30 in February. December and January were the worst months on record, with 76 deaths each.

The health ministry said in its daily report that the number of patients being treated for COVID-19 remained at 115, unchanged from Saturday and continuing in a downward trend throughout the week.

The critical cases also showed a slowdown, dropping to 42 on Sunday, compared to 44 on Saturday and 48 on Friday.

Some 60,508 PCR and antigen rapid tests were conducted which, based on the 75 new cases of SARS-CoV-2, down from 91 on Saturday, generated a ‘test positivity’ rate of 0.12%, far below the risk level of 1.00%.

The total number of positive cases since the pandemic started is now 71,911.

Of the 75 new infections, 13 were identified through contact tracing, six passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports tested positive, and 11 were diagnosed from targeted and lab tests.

A further 45 new coronavirus cases were traced through the national rapid testing programme, of which 19 were in Nicosia (test positivity rate of 0.09%), followed by 18 in Limassol (0.11%), 5 in Larnaca  (0.07) and three in Famagusta district (0.07%).

Paphos once again did not diagnose new cases of COVID-19.