Cyprus reported the first coronavirus death of the year on Sunday, as new cases rose to 3,538, from 2,332 on New Year’s day, but far from the staggering 5,048 infections on New Year’s Eve.
Health Minister Michalis Hadjipantelas said earlier in the day that the highly transmissive Omicron variant accounted for 80% of all new cases, with this rate expected to reach 100% within a few days, prompting the government to consider stricter measures.
Hospitalisations breached the 200-bed safety margin with 203 patients being treated for Covid-19, of whom 84 are serious. This is up from the 187 and 82, respectively, the day before.
Patient numbers have increased steadily to the 170-180 level the past few weeks since breaking past the 100-level in mid-November, raising fears of reaching the national bed capacity of 200.
The health ministry said in its Covid bulletin that the latest victim was an 85 year old woman, raising the death toll since the pandemic started to 639.
Of these, 405 were men (63.4%) and 234 women, with an average age of 76 years.
The number of intubated patients increased by one to 33, while 83% of hospital patients were reported as unvaccinated.
Sixteen 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 reached 172,697.
A higher 91,482 PCR and rapid tests were conducted on Saturday, 53,000 more than Saturday when people needed a negative result to be allowed into clubs and venues hosting New Year celebrations.
Test rate at 3.87%
On increased tests and positive cases, the benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate dropped to 3.87%, having skyrocketed to an unprecedented 5.98% the day before, six times above the high-risk barrier of 1.0%.
Of the new infections, 68 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections, 58 were passengers who arrived at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 387 were diagnosed from private initiative, hospital, and GP tests.
A further 1,816 cases were detected from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 1,209 (629 were in Nicosia) were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.
Of the 321 tests in retirement homes, 23 tested positive, as did 46 out of 2,417 samples in restricted institutions.
