COVID19: Cases on the march, more patients, no deaths

Cyprus reported a 9% rise in new daily coronavirus cases to 960 on Saturday, up from the previous day’s 882 and not far from the 993 peak, hospitalisations also increased, but there were no deaths.

The Health Ministry said in its Covid bulletin that no deaths were attributed to Covid-19 for the fifth consecutive day, with the death toll remaining at two for July and unchanged at 380 since the pandemic started.

But hospital admissions continued to rise attributed to the Delta strain driving the fourth wave, with 125 patients currently in state hospitals, eight more than the day before.

The number of critical cases rose by two from Friday to 32.

In all, an above-average 69,310 PCR and antigen rapid tests were conducted Saturday, more than the 62,000 the previous day.

Based on the 960 new cases, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate dropped to 1.39% from 1.42% on Friday and the 2.16% high on Wednesday.

The benchmark high-risk level is 1.00%.

Saturday’s new coronavirus cases pushed the total of infections for the past 16 months to 83,423.

At the same time last month, the figure was 10,000 less at 73,055.

Of the new cases, six passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports were positive in PCR tests, and 277 cases were diagnosed from private lab and hospital tests, up from 183.

Another 105 cases were detected through the contact tracing process of the ministry.

A further 572 new cases were diagnosed through the national free rapid testing programme, down from Friday’s 694.

Most cases were recorded in Limassol at 183 with the highest test positivity rate of 1.34%, followed by 158 in Nicosia (0.72%), 70 in Larnaca (0.76%), 70 in Paphos (0.97%) and 91 in the Famagusta district (1.26%).

Cyprus has vaccinated 66.5% of the population with one jab; the target is to reach 70% in two weeks.