COVID19: No deaths third day in a row

Cyprus reported no coronavirus deaths for the third day in a row and the ninth time this month on Wednesday, with the number of new cases slightly up at 123 and hospitalisations edging lower to 81.

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 rose slightly to 123 from 117 the day before, while the number of patients currently admitted at state hospitals for treatment dropped by three to 81. Of these, 35 remain in serious condition, one more than the previous day.

Meanwhile, 14 patients remain intubated, while 69% 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 120,143.

The number of PCR and antigen rapid tests conducted during the past 24 hours dropped to 46,347, around 5,000 fewer than on Tuesday.

This included 12,885 tests at high schools, with seven positive results, while most 1,509 tests of pupils at primary schools were negative and only one tested positive.

With a lower number of tests and 123 new infections, six more than the day before, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate rose significantly to 0.27% from 0.21% and remains well below the high-risk threshold of 1%.

Of the new cases, 17 were identified from contact tracing, linked to earlier infections, four 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 23 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.

All of the 797 tests on staff and residents at retirement homes had negative results, as were all 52 hotel guests and 202 random rapid tests at airports.