COVID19: 4 deaths, news cases up, fewer hospitalisations

Four people died of the coronavirus in Cyprus on Monday, with the number of new infections rising to 159 and hospitalisations dropping mildly to 107.

The health ministry said in its daily Covid bulletin that two women aged 66 and 89, and two men, 73 and 84, were the latest victims of the pandemic, raising the September death toll to 29 and the to date figure to 532.

Among the victims, 341 (64%) were male, and 191 female, with the average age at 76.4 years.

The number of patients currently admitted at state hospitals for treatment dropped slightly to 107 from Sunday’s 112, of whom 45 remain in serious condition, the same as the previous day.

Meanwhile, 19 patients remain intubated, four more from the day before, while 82% of hospital patients are unvaccinated.

Another 10 patients are considered post-Covid, having recovered from the virus, but remain intubated and in a serious state.

The total number of all SARS-CoV-2 infections since the pandemic started in March 2020 rose to 118,090.

Some 76,913 PCR and antigen rapid tests were conducted during the past 24 hours, around 33,000 more than the day before, of whom 12,108 were high school students with three positive results.

With an increased number of tests and 159 new infections, 59 more than the day before, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate dropped slightly to 0.21% from 0.25% and well below the high-risk threshold of 1%.

Of the new cases, 14 were identified from contact tracing, linked to earlier infections, five were passengers who tested positive in PCR tests at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 33 were diagnosed from private initiative and hospital tests.

A further 82 cases were identified from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies and 25 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.

All of the 918 samples taken from staff and residents at retirement homes tested negative, as did all 157 random tests at airports and 50 tests at hotels.