November started with no coronavirus deaths on Monday, for the second day in a row, as new cases spiralled to 280 with hospitalisations also rising, to 68.
The health ministry said that the death toll since the pandemic started remained unchanged at 574, following September’s 40 and the record 80 fatalities in August.
The number of hospitalisations rose to 68 from 61, and new daily cases increased to 280 from Sunday’s 112 and Saturday’s 155.
Of the 68 patients admitted to state hospitals for treatment, 25 remain serious, five more from the previous day.
Meanwhile, intubated patients increased to six, and 63% of hospital patients were reported as unvaccinated.
Another five 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 124,724.
15,500 tests in schools
The number of PCR and antigen rapid tests conducted during the past 24 hours nearly doubled to 65,948, including about 15,500 in schools.
Twelve of the 12,307 tests in high schools were positive, while all of the 3,265 tests in primary schools were negative for the virus.
With a drastic rise in the number of tests and infections rising to 280, 168 more than Sunday, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate rose to 0.42% from 0.29%, well within the high-risk threshold of 1%.
Of the new cases, 24 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections, eight were passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 44 were diagnosed from private initiative and hospital tests.
A further 137 cases were identified from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 67 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.
All of the 1,006 tests in retirement homes were negative, while two tested positive among 148 random rapid tests of passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, while three were positive from 219 samples from restricted institutions.
Only one person tested positive among 818 samples taken from restricted institutions.
