COVID19: Cases stable, no new deaths

Cyprus reported no coronavirus deaths for the third day in succession on Saturday, as daily cases and hospitalisations dipped slightly to 134 and 60, respectively.

The Health Ministry said in its Covid bulletin the death toll remained unchanged at 557 since the pandemic started in March last year, of which five were recorded in October.

September saw 40 deaths and ten days of no deaths, while August broke the record with 80 people dying from Covid-19.

The average age of those who died is 76.3, and 64% were men.

New cases declined to 134 from 144, while the number of patients currently admitted at state hospitals for treatment decreased by four from 64 to 60.

Of these, 23 remain in serious condition, three more from the previous day.

Meanwhile, 11 patients remain intubated, and 60% of hospital patients are unvaccinated.

Another 11 patients are still 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 121,270.

The number of PCR and antigen rapid tests conducted during the past 24 hours was lower at 46,046, over 9,000 less than Friday.

With a lower number of tests and 134 new infections, 10 fewer than the day before, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate rose to 0.29% from 0.26% and remains well below the high-risk threshold of 1%.

Of the new cases, three were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections, 14 were passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 45 were diagnosed from private initiative and hospital tests.

A further 46 cases were identified from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 26 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.

From that state testing scheme, Nicosia and Paphos had 8 cases each, followed by Larnaca (5), Limassol (4) and Famagusta (1).