COVID19: 2 deaths, fewer new cases and patients

Cyprus reported a drop in all coronavirus-related metrics on Wednesday, with two deaths, 769 new infections and 286 hospitalisations, down from six deaths, 791 new cases and 292 patients the day before.

The health ministry said in its daily Covid bulletin that a 69 year old man and a 79 year old woman died, raising the death toll for July to 34 and to 412 since the pandemic started 16 months ago.

Six people died on Tuesday, nearing the recent daily record of seven deaths on May 3, when the monthly toll reached 48, lower than the 56 in April and the record 76 each last December and January.

The bulletin said that the number of patients admitted for Covid-19 treatment in state hospitals dropped slightly from 292 to 286, of whom 83 are critical, three more than the day before. It said 89% of patients have not been vaccinated.

In all, 70,678 PCR and antigen rapid tests were conducted on Monday, about 6,000 more than the previous day.

Based on the 769 new infections and the total number of tests, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate dropped to 1.09% from 1.22%, marginally above the high-risk level of 1.00%.

 

Total infections pass 100,000 mark

Wednesday’s new SARS-CoV-2 cases pushed the total infections for the past 16 months beyond the 100,000 mark to 100,129.

A total 38 positive tests resulted from the contact tracing method, while 15 new infections were recorded from PCR tests at Larnaca and Paphos airports.

Some 182 positive test results came from private lab and hospital tests, 32 less than the day before, while a further 534 were diagnosed from the national rapid test programme, up from 502.

Of these, 135 were in Limassol with a higher test positivity rate of 0.93%, 106 in Nicosia (0.49%), 77 in Larnaca (0.70%), 63 in Paphos (0.88%) and 53 in Famagusta district (0.90%).

Fourteen of 701 samples from staff and residents at retirement homes tested positive, as did 12 soldiers serving in the National Guard, while all passengers tested negative from 80 random rapid tests at the airports.