COVID19: Five deaths, patients, cases decline

Cyprus reported five coronavirus deaths on Saturday, with new cases dropping 14.68% to 2,120, while hospitalisations were lower at 180 for the fourth day running.

The number of critical patients also dropped from 43 to 37.

The Health Ministry said in its Covid bulletin the latest victims of the pandemic were five men aged between 68 and 88, taking the February death toll to 39 and 785 since March 2020.

January was the deadliest month with 104, overtaking the previous record of 80 deaths last August.

Intubated patients stayed at 8, while 68.16% of hospitalised COVID-19 patients were unvaccinated.

Some 32 patients are still considered post-Covid, one more from Friday, 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 288,063.

A total of 83,144 PCR and rapid tests were conducted during the past 24 hours, 23,000 fewer than the day before.

The large decrease in the number of tests and the drop in new cases from 2,485 to 2,120 saw the benchmark ‘positivity rate’ rise from 2.15% to 2.55%, more than double the safe marker of 1%.

Having peaked at 5,457 on January 4, driven by a spike in the Omicron variant, new cases dipped below 3,000 for most of this week, remaining above that level for most of the past month.

Of the new infections, 104 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections.

On private initiative, 2,043 PCR tests were carried out, and 251 new cases were detected (positivity rate 12.29%).

Also, 43,233 rapid tests yielded 1,065 positive cases (positivity rate 2.46%).

From the government testing programme, 33,018 rapid antigen tests were done, and 735 new cases were detected.

Following 31,146 rapid tests done at various testing sites, 624 new cases were detected (positivity rate 2%).

Additionally, 380 rapid tests were conducted in retirement homes, and 16 cases were found (positivity rate 4.21%)