COVID19: Fewer cases as hospitalisations spike beyond 100

Cyprus reported fewer daily cases of 212 and no coronavirus deaths on Sunday as hospitalisations rose significantly to 105, breaking past the 100-marker for the first time in just over two months.

Hospitalisations were up by 13, of whom 35 are serious, unchanged from Saturday.

Cyprus health officials have not been so worried with hospitalisations ever since reaching 108 on September 15.

With patient numbers in the 50-60 range throughout most of October, this figure has increased steadily during the past two weeks, averaging 80 Covid-19 patients seeking treatment at state hospitals.

The health ministry said that with no Covid-19 deaths reported for the fifteenth day this month, the toll since the pandemic started remained at 590, of which five were in November.

At 15, the number of intubated patients remained the same, as 62% 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 SARS-CoV-2 infections since March 2020 rose to 130,100.

The number of PCR and antigen rapid tests conducted during the past 24 hours totalled 43,821, almost 7,000 fewer than the previous day.

Due to fewer tests and daily infections, 43 less than the previous day, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate fell to 0.48% from 0.50%, further from the high-risk threshold of 1%.

Of the new cases, seven were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections, three were passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 40 were diagnosed from private initiative and hospital tests.

A further 76 cases were identified from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 86 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.