COVID19: 3 deaths, rise in cases, nearly 100 critical

Cyprus reported three coronavirus deaths on Thursday, and an increase in both new infections and hospitalisations to 580 and 293 respectively, with the critical patients approaching 100.

The health ministry said that a 71 year old man died and two elderly women, aged 85 and 88, raising the death toll for August to 12 and 433 since the pandemic started.

It said in the daily Covid bulletin that 293 patients are currently admitted for treatment, of whom 96 are critical, up from 273 and 90, respectively. The health ministry added that 89.8% of patients had not been vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus, up from 89% the day before.

The PCR and antigen rapid testing dropped to half of Wednesday’s level, with 36,141 tests which, based on the 580 new infections, generated a benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate of 1.60%, breaking past the high-risk threshold of 1.00%.

This raised the total number of all SARS-CoV-2 infections during the past 17 months rose to 104,469.

Of the new cases, 88 were discovered through contact tracing linked to earlier infections, nine passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports tested positive, and 147 were diagnosed from private lab and hospital testing.

A further 336 were identified from the national rapid test programme, of whom 39 were in Nicosia, 34 in Limassol, 19 in Larnaca, 12 in Paphos and 12 in Famagusta district.

Also, 14 were positive from 574 tests of staff and residents at retirement homes, with a further 33 diagnosed from 609 tests in closed communities and facilities.