Cyprus reported two deaths attributed to Covid-19 on Wednesday, as new infections dropped to 143, but hospitalisations continued to rise to 64.
The ministry said in its daily Covid bulletin that the death toll since the pandemic started increased to 566, of whom 14 died in October.
Two men, aged 57 and 68, were the latest victims of the virus, with males accounting for 360 deaths to date (63%) and 206 females. The average age of those who died is 76.2 years.
After a record 80 deaths in August, the number dropped to 40 in September, with ten days of no Covid-related deaths. So far, October has seen nine days of no Covid-related deaths in Cyprus.
New daily cases continued dropped from 181 to 143, lower than Monday’s 166, while the number of patients admitted at state hospitals for treatment increased by three to 64. Of these, 24 remain in serious condition, two more than the previous day.
Meanwhile, 11 patients remain intubated, unchanged from the previous day, and 60% of hospital patients are reported as unvaccinated.
Another six 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 122,852.
Fewer tests
The number of PCR and antigen rapid tests conducted during the past 24 hours dropped to 46,367, some 6,000 less than Tuesday.
Of these, 12,602 were tests in high schools, of whom seven tested positive, while all of the 3,385 tests in primary schools were negative.
With a lower number of tests and a drop in new infections to 143, 38 less than the day before, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rose to 0.31% from Tuesday’s 0.34%, well within the high-risk threshold of 1%.
Of the new cases, 33 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections, five testing on passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 29 were diagnosed from private initiative and hospital tests.
A further 41 cases were identified from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 35 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.
All of the 701 samples at retirement homes tested negative, as did 180 tests at restricted institutions, and 44 tests at special schools.
Among tourists, 22 tested negative in tests at hotels, as well as 190 random rapid tests of airport arrivals.
