COVID19: No deaths, fewer cases and patients

Cyprus reported no coronavirus deaths for the second day in a row on Sunday, with new cases and hospitalisations dropping to 83 and 68, respectively.

The health ministry said in its daily Covid bulletin that the death toll since the pandemic started remained at 554 with September recording ten days of no deaths for a monthly total of 40. This followed the record 80 people who died as a result of Covid-19.

New cases dropped marginally to 83 from 84, while the number of patients currently admitted at state hospitals for treatment dropped from 73 to 68. Of these, 27 remain in serious condition, four less than the previous day.

Meanwhile, 12 patients remain intubated, while 60% 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 120,498.

The number of PCR and antigen rapid tests conducted during the past 24 hours rose to 42,672, around 13,000 fewer than on Saturday.

With a lower number of tests and 83 new infections, one less than the day before, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate rose slightly to 0.19% from 0.15% and remains well below the high-risk threshold of 1%.

Of the new cases, 18 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections, 13 were passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 18 were diagnosed from private initiative and hospital tests.

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

All of the 92 tests on staff and residents at retirement homes had negative results, while of the 139 random rapid tests of passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, only one tested positive.