COVID19: Cases surge to new record 2,241

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New coronavirus cases surged to a new record of 2,241 in Cyprus on Tuesday, up from Monday’s all-time high of 1,925, with no Covid-related deaths, while hospitalisations remained at high levels of 168, as health experts see the Omicron variant pushing numbers higher.

The health ministry said in its daily bulletin that the death toll remained unchanged at 630, of whom 33 were in December, up from 12 in November.

After a record 80 deaths in August, the number dropped to 40 in September and 20 in October.

There were more than 800 new daily cases throughout the past week, breaking the 900 barrier three times – 978 on Thursday, 917 on Friday and 912 on Sunday.

Monday’s 1,925 broke all records, topping the previous high of 1,152 in July.

Hospitalisations rose by seven to 168, with serious cases rising by six, at 84.

Patient numbers have increased steadily since breaking past the 100-level in mid-November, raising fears of reaching the national bed capacity of 200.

The number of intubated patients remained at 27, while 81% of hospital patients were reported as unvaccinated, unchanged from Sunday.

Fifteen patients are still considered post-Covid, having recovered from the virus, two more from the day before, but remain intubated and in a serious state.

The total number of SARS-CoV-2 infections since March 2020 reached 154,926.

A total 98,047 PCR and rapid tests were conducted, 23,000 less than Monday’s high.

 

Test positivity gallops to 2.29%

With a record new cases and fewer tests, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate galloped past the high-risk barrier of 1.0% and rose from 1.59% to 2.29%, having peaked at 1.70% on Sunday.

Of the new infections, 220 were identified through contact tracing, 76 were passengers who arrived at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 416 were diagnosed from private initiative, hospital, and GP tests.

A further 1046 cases were detected from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 483 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.

Two of the 830 samples from retirement homes were positive, while 51 samples tested positive from 2,099 in restricted institutions, as well as five from 269 tests in the National Guard.