COVID19: Two deaths, hospitalisations up

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Cyprus on Saturday reported two coronavirus deaths, with a lower 140 new cases but more hospitalisations, while the benchmark infection rate is 0.26%, far below the high-risk level.

The Health Ministry said in its daily Covid bulletin that a 59-year-old man and a woman aged 92 were the latest victims of the pandemic.

And the death toll since the outbreak started rose to 547, of which 35 were recorded in September.

The number of patients currently admitted at state hospitals for treatment increased to 96 from Friday’s 89, of whom 39 remain in serious condition, three more from the previous day.

Meanwhile, 17 patients remain intubated, two more than the day before, while 76.05% 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 118,863.

The number of PCR and antigen rapid tests conducted during the past 24 hours dropped to 53,472, around 11,000 less than Friday.

With fewer tests and 140 new infections, 13 less than the day before, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate edged up to 0.26% and was well below the high-risk threshold of 1%.

Of the new cases, one was identified from contact tracing, linked to earlier infections, four were passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 50 were diagnosed from private initiative and hospital tests.

A further 68 cases were identified from 33,054 private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 17 were positive from the 15,176 free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.

Most cases (5) were found in Larnaca from the free tests, followed by Nicosia (4).