COVID19: No deaths as new cases drop to 100 mark

Cyprus reported no coronavirus deaths on Thursday for the eleventh day this month, with the number of hospitalisations rising marginally to 59, and new daily cases dropping to 109, nearly half the previous day.

The health ministry said in its daily Covid report that the death toll since the pandemic started remained at 571, of whom 17 died in October.

After a record 80 deaths in August, the number dropped to 40 in September, with 11 days of no Covid-related deaths in October.

Of the 59 patients admitted to state hospitals for treatment, three more than the day before, 18 remain in serious condition, unchanged from the previous day.

Meanwhile, the number of patients who are intubated was unchanged at 8, and 58% of hospital patients are reported as unvaccinated.

Another four 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 124,017.

 

Fewer tests

The number of PCR and antigen rapid tests conducted during the past 24 hours dropped to 24,193 due to the public holiday and schools remained closed, usually accounting for about 13,000 tests.

With significant drop in the number of tests and infections at 109, 91 less than Wednesday, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rose to 0.45% from 0.36%, well within the high-risk threshold of 1%.

Of the new cases, 8 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections, seven were passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 30 were diagnosed from private initiative and hospital tests.

A further 20 cases were identified from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 44 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.

All 123 tests in retirement homes were negative for Covid-19, as well as 24 tests of guests staying in hotels and 88 in restricted institutions.

Of 146 random rapid tests on passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports only one tested positive.