COVID19: Cases near 600 again, one death

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Cyprus reported one coronavirus death on Friday, the second this month, with the number of hospitalisations dropping slightly to 111, while new daily cases neared 600, rising to 594.

Daily infections rose from 337 on Sunday to 586 on Monday and peaked at 613 on Tuesday.

The health ministry said in its daily Covid bulletin that a 75 year old man was the latest victim of the pandemic, with the death toll since March 2020 rising to 599.

Hospitalisations dropped by one to 111, as serious cases increased by three to 49, from 46 the day before.

The number of intubated patients was increased by one at 19, as 69% 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 136,097.

 

88,000 tests

Testing remained steady at 88,227 PCR and antigen rapid tests, about 400 fewer than the day before.

About 20,800 tests were conducted in schools with 27 identified carrying the virus from 9,108 samples in primary schools, and 19 among 11,739 in high schools.

With an unchanged number of tests and an increase in daily infections to 594, some 56 more than the previous day, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate increased to 0.67% from 0.61%, below the high-risk threshold of 1%.

Of the new infections, 155 were traced from previous cases, six were passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 84 were diagnosed from private initiative, hospital, and GP tests.

A further 244 cases were identified from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 105 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.

All of the 391 samples from retirement homes tested negative, as were 15 tests in restricted institutions, and five samples from special schools.