COVID19: Two deaths as cases dip

Cyprus reported two coronavirus deaths on Saturday after four days without any COVID fatalities, while new cases and hospitalisation rates dropped.

The Health Ministry said in its daily Covid bulletin that the death toll since the pandemic rose to 561, taking October deaths to nine.

The latest victims of the pandemic were two men aged 80 and 76, both dying at Paphos General Hospital.

And the average age of those who died from COVID is 76.3, the majority males (63%).

After a record 80 deaths in August, the number dropped to 40 in September, and October has seen eight days of no Covid-related deaths in Cyprus.

New daily cases dropped from 142 to 126, while the number of patients admitted at state hospitals for treatment also decreased from 56 to 51. Of these, 20 remain in serious condition, four fewer than the previous day.

Meanwhile, ten patients remain intubated, and 63% of hospital patients are unvaccinated.

Another nine 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 122,263.

The number of PCR and antigen rapid tests conducted during the past 24 hours dropped to 44,460, over 9,000 less than Friday.

With fewer tests and a drop in new infections to 126, 16 fewer than the day before, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rose to 0.28% from Friday’s 0.26%, well within the high-risk threshold of 1%.

Of the new cases, 11 were identified through testing on passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 33 were diagnosed from private initiative and hospital tests.

A further 59 cases were identified from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 23 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.

According to the latest epidemiological report, one in five cases detected in the last 14 days were imported.