COVID19: Omicron rampant in Cyprus

According to the latest genomic sequencing results of coronavirus cases, the highly infectious Omicron variant rules in Cyprus, causing 94% of infections explaining the recent surge.

On Tuesday, the Health Ministry said the Omicron variant was found in 92 samples out of 99 (93.9%) sequenced, collected from 31 December 2021 until 8 January.

Just six cases were Delta related infections. Results were inconclusive for one case.

Last week another 166 samples were confirmed with the Omicron variant by the NIPD and the Molecular Virology Laboratory of the University of Cyprus out of the 192 samples sent for sequencing (86%).

On 11-17 December, the cases were just 4,145. Four weeks later, 1-7 January, the cases exploded to 28,744 and the week after that, they dropped to 21,686.

Age groups 0-5 and 6-11 are the only ones that continued to record an increase in cases during the week 8-14 January. During this week, 5,166 cases were detected among minors.

Nicosia had the highest number of cases in all age groups on week 8-14 January.

COVID-19 daily cases have been stubbornly high, with 2,918 infections reported on Monday along with three deaths.

A record high of 5,457 daily cases reached on 4 January is blamed on the Omicron variant, as are rising hospital admissions.

On Tuesday, 270 COVID-19 patients were in hospital, of which 94 were in a more serious condition.

The latest data showed 192 reinfections out of 21,686 Covid cases traced between January 8 and 14.

Some 78% of patients in hospitals have no vaccine history against COVID-19.