Cyprus reported one death attributed to COVID-19 on Friday, a drop in hospitalisations and an increase in new daily cases, as further restrictions are lifted and the vaccination rollout continues.
However, some of Monday’s vaccinations will be rescheduled due to strike action by nurses.
The health ministry said that a 92 year old man was the third person to die from the coronavirus in June, with the toll since the pandemic started rising to 363.
Hospitalisations dropped again to 52, from 58 the day before, as critical cases were also fewer, at 18 from 21 on Thursday.
However, the number of new infections rose significantly to 83, having remain in the 50-60 range throughout the week, but still below the 100 mark of daily cases.
The ministry’s daily Covid bulletin said that 54,217 PCR and antigen rapid tests were conducted on the day, higher than previous days, which when factoring in the 83 new infections generated a ‘test positivity’ rate of 0.13%, level with previous days.
During the past 15 months, Cyprus has recorded 72,709 cases of SARS-CoV-2.
Of the new cases, 28 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections, seven passengers tested positive among 3,623 samples taken from arrivals at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 19 were diagnosed from private lab and hospital tests.
A further 29 new cases were diagnosed from the national rapid testing programme, of which Limassol maintained the lead with 14 infections (test positivity rate of 0.12%), Nicosia had 6 (0.04%), 3 in Larnaca (0.05%) and 3 in Paphos (0.08%). No new cases were reported in Famagusta district.
All 514 samples from residents and staff in retirement homes tested negative for coronavirus, as did 404 tests in industrial zones.
Only one positive case was diagnosed among 5,270 teachers and students in schools.
Vaccinations rescheduled
Meanwhile, the health ministry said that due to nurses’ union PASYNO’s strike on Monday, vaccinations have been rescheduled.
The affected vaccination centres are:
Larnaca: Port B
Limassol: Spyros Kyprianou vaccination centres B and E
Famagusta General Hospital, vaccination centre C.
Those who had an appointment scheduled for Monday, 7 June, will be informed by Sunday, through a text message sent on their mobile phones stating their new appointment date.
