COVID19: Cases drop, fewer patients, no deaths

Cyprus reported a drop in COVID-19 cases on Saturday, along with a fall in hospitalisations and a lower test positivity rate, as a more relaxed coronavirus regime is introduced.

The Health Ministry said there were no coronavirus deaths on Saturday, keeping the June death toll at three, with fatalities since the pandemic staying at 363, 66% of them men.

Patients treated in hospitals dropped again to 45, from 52 the day before, as critical cases remained at 18.

The number of new infections also dipped significantly to 41, from a 10-day high of 83 cases on Friday.

The ministry’s daily COVID bulletin said that 49,462 PCR and antigen rapid tests were conducted on the day, lower than the previous day, generating a ‘test positivity rate of 0.08% after Friday’s 0.13%.

Limassol has the highest positivity rate at 0.11%.

During the past 15 months, Cyprus has recorded 72,750 cases of SARS-CoV-2.

Of the new cases, 19 were diagnosed from private lab and hospital tests, while one was identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections.

No passenger tested positive among 2,437 samples taken from arrivals at Larnaca and Paphos airports.

Another 23 daily cases were diagnosed from the national rapid testing programme, with Limassol maintaining the lead with 11 infections (test positivity rate of 0.11%), Nicosia had 4 (0.02%), 2 in Larnaca (0.03%), 2 in the Famagusta district (0.05%) and one in Paphos (0.02%).