COVID19: 3 deaths, more cases, fewer patients

Cyprus reported three coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, the same as the day before, an increase in new daily infections to 433 and a drop in hospitalisations to 223.

The health ministry said in its Covid bulletin that a 56 year old man died, as well as two women, aged 71 and 84, raising the August death toll to 43 and to 467 to date since the pandemic started.

Some 44,475 PCR and antigen rapid tests were conducted during the past 24 hours, about 17,000 less than Tuesday.

The 433 new infections, 21 more than the day before, and the total tests, generated a benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate of 0.97%, higher than Tuesday’s 0.67%, but still below the high-risk threshold of 1.00%.

At present, 223 patients are admitted for Covid-19 treatment in state hospitals, 9 less than the day before, of whom 90 are critical, two less than Tuesday.

Of these, 47 remain intubated, four fewer from the previous day, and 81.2% of patients are unvaccinated.

The total number of all SARS-CoV-2 infections during the past 17 months rose to 110,098.

Of the new cases, 42 were discovered through contact tracing, 7 passengers tested positive in PCR tests at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 102 were diagnosed from private initiative and hospital tests.

A further 194 new cases were identified from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, while 88 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infection.

Of these, 31 were in Nicosia, 25 in Limassol, 15 in Paphos, 10 in Famagusta district, and 6 in Larnaca.

All of the 429 tests of staff and residents at retirement homes were negative.

Some 185 random rapid tests at airports were also negative, as were 62 tourists tested between August 13 to 18, having completed their seventh day of stay on the island.