COVID19: 1 death, new cases dip below 1,000

Cyprus saw a mild drop in new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, falling to 995 from 1056 the day before, with one death and a rise in hospitalisations to 231.

The health ministry said in its daily Covid bulletin that a 76 year old man died at Nicosia General hospital, raising the death toll for July to 13 and to 391 since the pandemic started. Five deaths were reported on Monday alone.

It said that hospitalisations continued to climb, rising to 231 from 228 on Monday, of whom 59 are critical, three more than the previous day. This is significantly higher than Sunday’s 218 and 50, respectively.

About 91% of patients admitted for treatment are people who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19, the health ministry said.

Some 67,331 PCR and antigen rapid tests were conducted on Tuesday, about 2,000 fewer than the previous day.

The 995 new cases, based on the total tests, generated a national ‘test positivity’ rate of 1.48%, slightly down from Monday’s 1.52%, yet significantly higher than Sunday’s 1.21%.

The benchmark high-risk level is 1.00%, which had peaked at above 2.00% last week.

Tuesday’s new SARS-CoV-2 cases pushed the total infections for the past 16 months to 93,247.

Of the new cases, 104 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections, 12 passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports were positive in PCR tests, and 267 were diagnosed through private lab and hospital tests.

A further 612 were diagnosed through the national rapid test programme, 104 less than the day before, with Nicosia remaining in the lead with most cases, at 173, but a lower test positivity rate of 0.83%, below the benchmark of 1.00%.

Limassol was next with 153 new cases and a 1.09% rate, followed by 109 in Larnaca (1.28%), 69 in Paphos (0.87%) and 51 in Famagusta district with 0.85%.

One person tested positive from 341 samples of staff and residents at retirement homes, the health ministry concluded.