COVID19: No deaths, but patients increase

Cyprus reported no coronavirus deaths for the second day in a row and the eighth time this month on Tuesday, with the number of new cases slightly down and hospitalisations edging higher.

The health ministry said in its daily Covid bulletin that the death toll remained unchanged at 552, keeping the September total at 40, half the record 80 in August.

New cases dropped slightly to 117 from 136 the day before, while the number of patients currently admitted at state hospitals for treatment rose by three to 84. Of these, 34 remain in serious condition, one more than the previous day.

Meanwhile, 15 patients remain intubated, while 75% of hospital patients are unvaccinated.

Another 11 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 120,020.

The number of PCR and antigen rapid tests conducted during the past 24 hours dropped to 51,973, around 14,000 fewer than on Monday.

This included 12,397 tests at high schools, with two positive results, while all 1,897 tests of pupils at primary schools were negative.

With a lower number of tests and 117 new infections, 19 less than the day before, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate remained rose marginally from 0.21% to 0.23% and remains well below the high-risk threshold of 1%.

Of the new cases, 16 were identified from contact tracing, linked to earlier infections, nine were passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 32 were diagnosed from private initiative and hospital tests.

A further 47 cases were identified from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 13 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.

All of the 1,077 tests on staff and residents at retirement homes had negative results, as were all 64 hotel guests and 182 random rapid tests at airports.