COVID19: No deaths as hospitalisations increase

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Cyprus reported no coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, as new cases remained above 400 at 437 and hospitalisations continued to rise, to 115, with an increase in infections among younger people.

With the government contemplating targeted measures as of Wednesday in an effort to halt the spread of the virus, the majority of parents appear to be on board with proposal for pupils aged six and above to wear a mask in the classroom.

All Christmas events and school parties will also be cancelled.

The health ministry said that in its daily Covid bulletin that hospitalisations were up by nine, of whom 38 are serious, six more from Monday.

With no Covid-19 deaths reported for the third day in a row and the seventeenth 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 61% 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 131,028.

The number of PCR and antigen rapid tests conducted during the past 24 hours dropped to 66,797, about 17,000 fewer than Monday.

This included 16,600 tests in schools.

Of the 12,807 samples taken in high schools, 22 tested positive for the virus, of whom ten were in Nicosia, while only one tested positive among 3,875 in primary schools.

 

Test rate rises to 0.65%

Due to the decrease in tests and daily infections, 54 less than the previous day, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate rose to 0.65% from 0.59%, below the high-risk threshold of 1%.

Of the new cases, 79 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections, five were passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 77 were diagnosed from private initiative and hospital tests.

A further 198 cases were identified from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 78 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.

After a Covid-free streak for several months, one person tested positive from 1,040 tests in retirement homes, while all 134 were negative among tests at restricted institutions, as well as 302 tests in the National Guard.