Cyprus reported one coronavirus death on Wednesday, and a decrease in new cases to 100 and hospitalisations to 59, as health authorities started the rollout of third dose vaccinations to over 75 year olds.
The health ministry said in its daily Covid report that a 51 year old man was the latest victim of the pandemic, raising the death toll since March last year to 557.
New cases dropped to 100 from 146, while the number of patients currently admitted at state hospitals for treatment decreased slightly from 61 to 59. Of these, 21 remain in serious condition, four less than the previous day.
Meanwhile, 13 patients remain intubated, while 59% 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 120,861.
The number of PCR and antigen rapid tests conducted during the past 24 hours was lower at 46,925, around 6,600 fewer than Tuesday.
This included 12,109 tests at high schools, of whom two tested positive in Nicosia, while all of the 2,991 tests at primary schools were negative.
With a lower number of tests and 100 new infections, 46 less than the day before, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate dropped to 0.21% from 0.27% and remains well below the high-risk threshold of 1%.
Of the new cases, 14 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections, five were passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 26 were diagnosed from private initiative and hospital tests.
A further 45 cases were identified from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 10 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.
Only one of the 785 tests on staff and residents at retirement homes had a positive result, as well as one of 201 random rapid tests of passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports.
All of the 172 tests at special schools and confined institutions, as well as 47 holidaymakers in hotels produced negative results.
