Cyprus reported four coronavirus deaths on Monday, a doubling of new daily infections to 493 and a mild drop in hospitalisations, as health authorities warned that the Covid clinic in Famagusta was reaching capacity.
The coronavirus reference hospital Famagusta General has reached full capacity of 75 COVID-19 patients receiving treatment, said its scientific director Amalia Hadjiyianni on Monday.
She said that the youngest patient is 23 years old and the oldest is 90, and the median age of COVID patients is 59.
The health ministry said that an 81 year old woman, as well as three men aged 64, 68 and 76 died from Covid-19 complications, with the death toll since the pandemic started reaching 426, five of whom in August.
The number of patients admitted in state hospitals dropped mildly to 287 from 301 the day before, of whom 88 were critical, two more than Sunday.
The health ministry said in its daily Covid bulletin that 88.6% of those admitted in state hospitals had not been vaccinated, down from 89.9% the previous day.
The total of all SARS-CoV-2 infections during the past 17 months rose to 102,716.
In all, 33,583 PCR and antigen rapid tests were conducted on Monday, 10,000 than Sunday, but far less than Saturday’s record 94,279, the last day of free-for-all rapid tests.
Based on the total number of tests and new infections, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate rose from 1.19% to 1.47%.
Of the new daily infections, 9 passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports were positive from PCR tests, while 203 were diagnosed from private lab and hospital tests, double the previous day.
A further 281 were diagnosed from the national rapid testing programme, which is now only available free of charge to persons who have been vaccinated, have contracted and recovered from the coronavirus and those justified with serious medical conditions.
Of these, 42 were in Nicosia, 33 in Limassol, 21 in Larnaca, 13 in Famagusta district and eight in Paphos.
Only one result from the 1,050 samples from staff and residents at retirement homes tested positive, as well as one soldier serving in the National Guard. All 281 random tests on passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports tested negative.
