COVID19: Three deaths, cases drop, hospital patients rise

Cyprus reported three coronavirus deaths on Saturday, with a drop in daily cases dipping below 3,000, and hospitalisations increased 6% to 270.

The Health Ministry said in its Covid bulletin the death toll since the pandemic started to 675.

The latest victims to COVID-19 were three men, two aged 88 and the other 62. The average age of those who died is 75.9; 63% were men.

January has accounted for 37 deaths, fast catching up with December’s 41 deaths, after a record 80 in August 2021.

An unprecedented surge of COVID-19 cases, powered by the Omicron variant, is beginning to abate, dropping under 3,000 for the first time in two weeks.

Hospitalisations rose again to 270 from 257, as serious cases were down three, to 88.

Intubated patients were 28, while 74.08% of hospital patients were unvaccinated.

And 20 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 is 223,767.

A total of 95,740 PCR and rapid tests were conducted during the past 24 hours, Over 20,000 fewer than Friday.

Fewer tests and a drop in new cases saw the benchmark ‘positivity’ rate fall slightly to 2.46% from the previous day’s 2.49%, having skyrocketed to 5.98% on New Year’s day, six times above the high-risk barrier of 1%.

Of the new infections, 178 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections, 42 were passengers who arrived at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 413 were diagnosed from private initiative, hospital and GP tests.

A further 971 cases were detected from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 747 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.