Cyprus reported one coronavirus death on Monday, an increase in new cases to 117 and a small drop in hospitalisations to 65, as health authorities speed up vaccination plans.
The government said a mass COVID-19 vaccination event is being organised in Limassol on Sunday, for people eligible for a booster shot and those unvaccinated who would like to get their first jab.
As of Monday, the walk-in vaccination centres were accepting people aged over 80 for a third jab, having started with the over 86s and then the over 83s.
The health ministry said in its daily Covid report that a 75 year old man was the latest victim of the pandemic, raising the death since March last year to 555.
September recorded 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 in August alone.
New cases increased to 117 from 83, while the number of patients currently admitted at state hospitals for treatment dropped from 68 to 65. Of these, 24 remain in serious condition, three less than the previous day.
Meanwhile, 13 patients remain intubated, while 57% 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 120,615.
The number of PCR and antigen rapid tests conducted during the past 24 hours rose to 63,823, around 21,000 more than on Sunday.
Testing resumes at primary and high schools
This included 12,000 tests at high schools, of whom two tested positive in Nicosia, while all 2,315 tests at primary schools were negative.
With a higher number of tests and 117 new infections, 34 more than the day before, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate dropped marginally to 0.18% from 0.19% and remains well below the high-risk threshold of 1%.
Of the new cases, three were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections, nine were passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 33 were diagnosed from private initiative and hospital tests.
A further 60 cases were identified from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 12 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.
All of the 964 tests on staff and residents at retirement homes had negative results, as did all 798 tests at special schools and 36 holidaymakers in hotels, while of the 125 random rapid tests of passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, only one tested positive.
