COVID19: No deaths as cases drop nearer to 2,000

Cyprus reported no coronavirus deaths on Sunday, the first time in ten days, with new cases continuing on their downward path and dropping by 73 to 2,047, while hospitalisations inched up to 182, of whom 41 were critical, up from 37.

The Health Ministry said in its Covid bulletin that the February death toll remained unchanged at 39 and 785 since March 2020.

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

Intubated patients rose to 11, while 70% of hospitalised COVID-19 patients were unvaccinated.

Some 30 patients are still considered post-Covid, two less than Saturday, 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 290,110.

A total of 81,650 PCR and rapid tests were conducted during the past 24 hours, 1,500 fewer than the day before.

The decrease in the number of tests and the drop in new cases from 2,120 to 2,047, saw the benchmark ‘positivity rate’ drop marginally from 2.55% to 2.51%, 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, 134 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections.

Of the 306 rapid tests conducted in retirement homes, 21 tested positive, and two new cases were found from 1,429 tests in restricted institutions.