Cyprus reported no coronavirus deaths on Monday, as new cases and hospitalisations rose once again to 491 and 106, with the authorities expected to announce new restrictions this week.
Health Minister Michalis Hadjipantelas met President Nicos Anastasiades to finalise new COVID-19 measures to be introduced after the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, including restrictions for the unvaccinated, while limiting social activities during the festive season.
The health ministry said that in its daily Covid bulletin that hospitalisations were up by one, of whom 32 are serious, three less than Sunday.
With no Covid-19 deaths reported for the second day in a row and the sixteenth 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 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 SARS-CoV-2 infections since March 2020 rose to 130,591.
Despite the number of new cases dropping below 300 over the weekend, Monday’s tally was near last Friday’s 475, a figure not seen since August.
83,000 tests
The number of PCR and antigen rapid tests conducted during the past 24 hours nearly doubled to 83,155, as testing resumed in schools.
Of the 12,770 tests in high schools, 19 were positive for the virus, while five tested positive from among 3,863 in primary schools.
Due to the increase in tests and daily infections, 279 more than the previous day, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate rose to 0.59% from 0.59%, further from the high-risk threshold of 1%.
Of the new cases, 58 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections, one was a passenger tested among 1,283 arrivals at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 58 were diagnosed from private initiative and hospital tests.
A further 285 cases were identified from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 89 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.
All of the 790 tests in retirement homes were negative, as were 811 tests in special schools and 119 random rapid tests at the airports.
