COVID19: No deaths as cases and hospitalisations below 100

Cyprus did not have coronavirus-related deaths for the third time this month on Sunday, with the number of new infections and hospitalisations dropping below 100 once again.

The health ministry said that the death toll remained at 547, of whom 35 were recorded in September.

New cases dropped to 94 from 140 the day before, while the number of patients currently admitted at state hospitals for treatment increased by two to 98 from Saturday’s 96, of whom 39 remain in serious condition, unchanged from the previous day.

Meanwhile, 17 patients remain intubated, while 78.6% 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 118,957.

The number of PCR and antigen rapid tests conducted during the past 24 hours dropped to 40,586, around 13,000 less than Saturday.

With fewer tests and 94 new infections, 46 less than the day before, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate dropped to 0.23% from 0.26% and remains well below the high-risk threshold of 1%.

Of the new cases, three were identified from contact tracing, linked to earlier infections, nine were passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 31 were diagnosed from private initiative and hospital tests.

A further 26 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 107 tests on staff and residents at retirement homes had negative results, and only one tested positive among 143 random rapid tests at airports.