Cyprus reported no coronavirus deaths on Friday for the twelfth day this month, with the number of hospitalisations rising marginally to 60, and new daily cases up to 160.
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 12 days of no Covid-related deaths in October.
Of the 60 patients admitted to state hospitals for treatment, one more than the day before, 22 remain in serious condition, up four from the previous day.
Meanwhile, the number of patients who are intubated dropped to six, and 65% 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 124,177.
The number of PCR and antigen rapid tests conducted during the past 24 hours more than doubled to 57,738, after Thursday’s public holiday when there were no tests in schools.
Testing resumes in schools
Of the 10,972 tests in high schools on Friday, five were positive, as well as five positive cases among 3,031 tests in primary schools.
With a significant increase in the number of tests and infections rising to 160, 51 more than Thursday, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ dropped to 0.28% from 0.45%, well within the high-risk threshold of 1%.
Of the new cases, 27 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections, eight were passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 30 were diagnosed from private initiative and hospital tests.
A further 56 cases were identified from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 39 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.
All 613 tests in retirement homes were negative for Covid-19, as well as 31 tests of guests staying in hotels and 223 in restricted institutions.
None of the 66 random rapid tests on passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports tested positive, while 223 tests at restricted institutions were also negative.
