COVID19: Fewer cases, more patients

Cyprus reported no coronavirus deaths on Sunday, as new daily infections receded significantly to 307 with fewer tests conducted, while hospitalisations continued to rise, climbing to 119.

The health ministry said that the death toll remained at 601, of which four this month.

Daily infections were down to 307 from 428 the day before and 594 on Friday.

Hospitalisations increased by four to 119, as serious cases remained unchanged at 43.

Intubated patients decreased by two at 15, while 69% of 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 136,832.

Testing at the weekend was lower than usual at 57,003 on Saturday and 78,007 PCR and antigen rapid tests on Saturday. Testing will resume in schools on Monday.

With fewer tests and daily infections, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate decreased to 0.54% from 0.58%, below the high-risk threshold of 1%.

Of the new infections, 20 were passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 63 were diagnosed from private initiative, hospital, and GP tests.

A further 91 cases were identified from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 133 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.

There were no positive cases among 167 tests in retirement homes, while one tested positive among 2,231 samples from restricted institutions.