Cyprus reported one coronavirus death on Friday, the third this month, as the number of new daily cases dropped to 224 and hospitalisations rose to 82, with the two-week national infection rate rising 39%.
According to the epidemiological report compiled by the Health Ministry’s advisory team, 2,528 cases were detected between 26 October and 8 November, compared to 1,815 in the previous 14 days.
The cumulative case diagnosis rate now stands at 284.7per 100,000 population, compared to 204.4 in the previous report (10 -23 October) and 151.5 for 28 September–11 October.
Almost 28% of the new Covid-19 cases were children and teenagers aged 10 to 19, while the median age was pushed down to 35.
The health ministry said in its daily Covid bulletin that the latest victim was an 82 year old, raising the death toll since the pandemic started to 588.
New daily infections dropped to 224, down by 40 from Thursday, while hospitalisations increased again to 82 from 80, of whom 34 remain serious, two more from the previous day.
Intubated patients dropped to eight, and 65% of all hospital patients were reported as unvaccinated.
Three 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 127,260.
58,000 tests
The number of PCR and antigen rapid tests conducted during the past 24 hours totalled 58,320, almost the same as the previous day, including 15,800 tests in schools.
Of the 12,350 tests in high schools, eleven were positive for coronavirus, and only one of the 3,535 primary pupils was diagnosed with the virus.
With an unchanged number of tests and fewer new infections, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate dropped to 0.38% from 0.45%, within the high-risk threshold of 1%.
Of the new cases, 31 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections, three were passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 50 were diagnosed from private initiative and hospital tests.
A further 102 cases were identified from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 38 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.
One of the 454 samples from retirement homes was positive for coronavirus, while all 165 tests in restricted institutions were negative, as well as 143 in special schools.
All of the 11 random tests at Limassol port and 112 at the airports were negative.
