COVID19: No deaths amid improving health data

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Cyprus reported no coronavirus deaths on Tuesday for the fourth time this month, a turnaround from the record 80 toll recorded in August, amid improving data and increasing vaccinations.

Health authorities are launching COVID-19 booster shots for the over 65s, starting Wednesday with those aged 86 and above who will be administered a third dose of the vaccine at walk-in centres.

Pending the tweaking of the vaccination portal, people will be allowed to book their appointment online, the health ministry said, with 2,793 doses administered so far, including 1,752 living in nursing homes, 510 health professionals in state hospitals, and 531 people belonging to vulnerable groups who have priority.

The health ministry said in its daily Covid bulletin that 548 people have died since the pandemic started, of whom 36 were recorded in September.

New cases dropped to 117 from 156 the day before and 94 on Sunday, while the number of patients currently admitted at state hospitals for treatment rose by one to 94. Of these, 39 remain in serious condition, one less from the previous day.

Meanwhile, 16 patients remain intubated, while 73.4% 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 March 2020 rose to 119,230.

 

4 of 12,300 high school students

The number of PCR and antigen rapid tests conducted during the past 24 hours rose to 53,935, around 10,500 less than Monday. This included 12,342 tests of high school students and teachers, four of whom tested positive.

With a lower number of tests and fewer 117 new infections, 39 less than the day before, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate improved marginally to 0.22% from 0.24% and remains well below the high-risk threshold of 1%.

Of the new cases, 17 were identified from contact tracing, linked to earlier infections, seven were passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 33 were diagnosed from private initiative and hospital tests.

A further 38 cases were identified from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 22 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.

All of the 1,066 tests on staff and residents at retirement homes had negative results, as were 137 random rapid tests at airports and 50 guests tested at hotels.