COVID19: No deaths as cases beyond 500 again

Cyprus reported no coronavirus deaths on Thursday, as the number of hospitalisations dropped slightly to 112, but new daily cases went beyond 500 again, rising to 538.

New infections dropped to 492 on Wednesday from the recent high of 613 on Tuesday.

The health ministry said in its daily bulletin that hospitalisations dropped by four to 112, as serious cases also improved marginally, dropping to 46, from 47 the day before.

The death toll since the pandemic started remained unchanged at 598.

The number of intubated patients increased by one at 18, 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 135,503.

Testing increased to 88,694 PCR and antigen rapid tests, about 4,000 more than the day before.

About 21,000 tests were conducted in schools with 24 identified carrying the virus from 8,720 samples in primary schools, and 21 among 12,308 in high schools.

With a slight increase in tests and daily infections to 538, some 46 more than the previous day, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate increased to 0.61% from 0.58%, below the high-risk threshold of 1%.

Of the new infections, 55 were traced from previous cases, 14 were passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 88 were diagnosed from private initiative, hospital, and GP tests.

A further 257 cases were identified from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 124 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.

Four of the 928 samples from retirement homes were positive, with one testing positive among 252 tests in restricted institutions. All 828 samples from special schools were negative, as were 30 random rapid tests at airports.