Cyprus reported two coronavirus deaths on Friday, with new daily cases remaining above 2,500 and rising marginally to 2,587, while hospitalisations dropped to 208.
Two men, aged 74 and 93, were the latest victims of the pandemic with the death toll rising to 88 for January and 726 since March 2020.
Of these, 452 were men (62.3%) and 274 women, with an average age of 76.2 years.
January became the deadliest month to date on Wednesday, with eight deaths, overtaking the previous record of 80 last August.
Hospitalisations dropped from 226 to 208, as serious cases also fell from the day before, down by eight to 68.
Intubated patients decreased by six to 30, while 76% of hospital patients were unvaccinated, a rate that has been rising steadily. The number of patients admitted at the Makarios children’s hospital was unchanged at 13.
Some 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 has risen to 248,941.
A total of 110,201 PCR and rapid tests were conducted during the past 24 hours, some 4,000 more than the day before, with ‘test to stay’ system introduced in schools as of Monday gaining support from parents.
211 cases in schools
Of the 7,937 tests in high schools, 57 were positive, and 124 among 21,531 in primary schools, while a further 30 new cases were discovered from 3,357 ‘test to stay’ samples in schools, about 50% more from the tests on Thursday.
The increase in the number of tests, as well as new cases from 2,536 to 2,587 saw the benchmark ‘positivity rate’ drop to 2.35% from 2.37% the previous day, having skyrocketed to 5.98% on New Year’s day, six times above the high-risk barrier of 1%.
Having peaked at 5,457 on January 4, driven by a spike in the Omicron variant, new cases remained below 3,000 throughout the past week, but do not seem to be dropping any further.
Of the new infections, 176 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections, 47 were passengers who arrived at Larnaca and Paphos airports, and 341 were diagnosed from private initiative, hospital and GP tests.
A further 1,371 cases were detected from private rapid tests at labs and pharmacies, and 769 were positive from the free national testing programme, available only to those vaccinated or recovered from earlier infections.
From 630 tests in retirement homes eight were positive, and four from 231 tests in restricted institutions.
