COVID19: New cases drop to 69, patients at 95

Cyprus reported a significant drop in new coronavirus infections to 69 on Wednesday, a figure not seen since last October, while hospitalisations continue to drop, as 95 patients are currently being treated in state hospitals.

The health ministry said in its daily Covid bulletin that no new deaths were recorded, with the count for May remaining at 45 and 357 since the pandemic started.

There were 95 patients who have been admitted for treatment in five state hospitals, two less than the day before, after Paphos General shut down its Covid ward on Monday, releasing the last patient who had recovered.

The number of critical cases also improved by two, dropping to 35.

Some 41,776 PCR and antigen rapid tests were conducted on Wednesday which, when factoring in the 69 new cases, generated a test positivity rate of 0.17%, dropping a tenth of a point for the third consecutive day.

Cyprus currently records 72,159 cases of SARS-CoV-2 during the past 14 months, as the vaccination rollout continues.

Of the new cases, 20 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections, 16 resulted from private lab and hospital tests, and 33 were diagnosed from the national rapid testing programme.

None of the 2,479 passengers tested upon arrival at Larnaca and Paphos airports tested positive for COVID-19.

Most of the new infections were traced to Limassol, with 14 cases, resulting in a test positivity rate of 0.18%, followed by 7 in Nicosia (0.07%), 6 in Larnaca (0.13%), 3 in Famagusta district (0.11%) and just one in paphos (0.03%).

All of the 502 samples taken from staff and residents at retirement homes tested negative, as did 768 samples from two industrial zones.

Just one person tested positive from among 5,078 tests at high schools.