COVID19: Two deaths, fewer cases and patients

Cyprus reported two coronavirus deaths on Sunday, bringing the total to nine this month, as new daily cases dropped from a four-month high back down to 337, while patient hospitalisations decreased to 114.

Saturday’s 535 cases were the highest daily tally since 10 August, suggesting Cyprus is experiencing a new coronavirus wave.

The latest victims of the virus were two men, aged 28 and 61, raising the death toll since the pandemic started to 594.

So far, 381 were men (64%) and 213 women with an average age of 75.9 years.

At 114, hospitalisations were down by four, of whom 43 are serious, two less than Saturday.

The number of intubated patients remained unchanged at 16, as 66% 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 133,274.

The number of PCR and antigen rapid tests conducted during the past 24 hours fell to 54,408, about 11,000 fewer than the day before.

With a decrease in tests and daily infections to 337, some 198 fewer than the previous day, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate dropped to 0.62% from 0.82%, below the high-risk threshold of 1%.

Of the new cases, 11 were traced from previous cases, three were passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 42 were diagnosed from private initiative, hospital, and GP tests.

A further 108 cases were identified from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 173 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.

All of the 81 samples from retirement homes were negative, as were 67 random rapid tests at both airports, while one tested positive among 2,416 samples in restricted institutions.