COVID19: Cases drop, no deaths after 7 days

Cyprus reported no coronavirus deaths for the first time in seven days on Friday, with daily cases dropping to a week-low of 895, and hospitalisations receding slightly to 254.

The death toll for July remains at 20 and 398 since the pandemic started. Most of the deaths were reported this week.

The health ministry said in its Covid bulletin that 254 people are currently admitted in five hospitals, of whom 63 are critical, dropping from 264 and 68, respectively. It said 88.2% of hospitalisations are people who have not been vaccinated, down from 90.2% the previous day.

Some 76,273 PCR and antigen rapid tests were conducted on Friday, 13,000 less than the previous day, which, based on the 895 new infections, reduced the test positivity rate to 1.17%, closer to the benchmark high-risk level of 1.00%, which had peaked at above 2.00% last week.

Friday’s new SARS-CoV-2 cases pushed the total infections for the past 16 months to 96,202.

Of the new cases, 45 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections, two passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports were positive in PCR tests, and 210 were diagnosed through private lab and hospital tests.

A further 638 were diagnosed through the national rapid test programme, down from the 699 the day before, with Nicosia taking the lead with most cases, at 168, and a test positivity rate of 0.69%, below the benchmark of 1.00%.

Limassol was next with 163 new cases (1.05%), followed by 91 in Larnaca (0.80%), 69 in Paphos (0.93%) and 48 in Famagusta district with 1.02%.

Of the 754 tests of staff and residents at retirement homes 13 were positive, down from 16 on Thursday, and one tested positive among 230 random samples at the airports.