A 57 year old woman died of Covid-19 in Cyprus on Monday, as new infection cases rose to 170 and hospitalisations dropped slightly to 58.
The health ministry said in its daily Covid report that the death toll since the pandemic started in March last year rose to 559, of whom seven died in October.
New cases rose significantly to 170 from 94, while the number of patients currently admitted at state hospitals for treatment dropped from 60 to 58. Of these, 22 remain in serious condition, unchanged from the previous day.
Meanwhile, 10 patients remain intubated, and 62% of hospital patients are unvaccinated.
Another 10 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 121,534.
The number of PCR and antigen rapid tests conducted during the past 24 hours nearly doubled to 64,004, about 26,000 more than Sunday.
14,500 tests in schools
This included 12,166 tests in high schools, of whom only two tested positive, as well as 2,482 tests in primary schools, where one tested positive.
With a higher number of tests and 170 new infections, 76 more than the day before, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate rose to 0.27% from 0.24% and remains well below the high-risk threshold of 1%.
Of the new cases, 17 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections, six were passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 45 were diagnosed from private initiative and hospital tests.
A further 73 cases were identified from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 29 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.
All 1,115 tests at retirement homes were negative for Covid-19, as were 193 tests at restricted institutions.
One of the 21 tourists tested at hotels was positive for Covid 19, as was one of the 128 random rapid tests on passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports. A further three tested positive among 765 samples taken at special schools.
