COVID19: Four deaths, cases and patients remain below 60

Cyprus reported four deaths attributed to COVID-19 on Thursday, after the two deaths the day before, with the death toll for June rising to 11 and the to-date figures since the pandemic started at 371.

The health ministry said in its daily Covid bulletin that the victims were all male, aged 61 to 93, with 248 men (67%) having succumbed to the virus during the past 15 months and 123 women. The average age of people who have died is 77.4 years.

Hospitalisations increased by four from 43 to 47, with the critical cases also up by one, at 17.

The ministry said that 37,644 PCR and antigen rapid tests were conducted on the day, diagnosing 59 new cases of SARS-CoV-2. Based on the number of tests, the benchmark ‘test positivity rate’ is now 0.16%, below Wednesday’s 0.20% and far from the high-risk threshold of 1.00%.

So far, Cyprus counts 73,055 virus infections.

Five of Thursday’s new cases were identified from contact tracing linked to earlier known infections, 11 passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports tested positive, and 16 werw diagnosed from private lab and hospital tests.

A further 27 cases were identified from the national rapid testing programme, of whom 13 were in Limassol (test positivity rate 13%), 11 in Nicosia (0.11%) and one in Famagusta district (0.05%).

No new cases were recorded in Larnaca and Paphos, while all 509 samples taken from staff and residents at retirement homes also tested negative, as well as 761 tests in industrial zones.

Two of the 6,241 samples from teachers and high school students tested positive, as Cyprus prepared to enter the year-end examinations period and university entrance placements.