COVID19: 3 deaths, fewer patients, but testing and cases up

Cyprus reported three coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, an increase in new daily infections to 412 and a drop in hospitalisations to 232, as testing numbers also rose to high levels.

The health ministry said in its Covid bulletin that three women died, aged 71 to 92, raising the August death toll to 40 and to 464 to date since the pandemic started.

Some 61,390 PCR and antigen rapid tests were conducted during the past 24 hours, about 17,000 more than Monday.

The 412 new infections, 31 more than the day before, and the total tests, generated a benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate of 0.67%, lower than Monday’s 0.86%, and below the high-risk threshold of 1.00%.

At present, 232 patients are admitted for Covid-19 treatment in state hospitals, two less than the day before, of whom 92 are critical, seven more than Monday.

Of these, 51 remain intubated, five more from the previous day, and 81.1% of patients are unvaccinated.

The total number of all SARS-CoV-2 infections during the past 17 months rose to 109,665.

Of the new cases, 39 were discovered through contact tracing, 10 passengers tested positive in PCR tests at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 98 were diagnosed from private initiative and hospital tests.

A further 188 new cases were identified from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, while 77 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infection.

Of these, 23 were in Nicosia, 21 in Limassol, 14 in Famagusta district, 8 in Paphos and 3 in Larnaca.

Seven out of 835 tests of staff and residents at retirement homes were positive.

Some 174 random rapid tests at airports were all negative.