COVID-19 cases, deaths, and hospitalisations began a slow downward trend after mid-February, according to the National Surveillance Report released Friday.
Since February 15, 27,674 cases were diagnosed taking the 14-day cumulative diagnosis rate to 3,116.4 per 100,000 population, compared to 36,018 cases and 4,056.1 per 100,000 for February 1-14.
On February 28, 321,419 COVID-19 cases were diagnosed, of which 863 died due to COVID-19, bringing the case fatality risk at 0.3%.
The median age of the cases was 31, and 53.6% were females. Around 2.5% of the cases were imported, and 97.5% were locally-acquired.
By age group, cases included 9,628 aged 0-19 (34.8%), 14,823 aged 20-59 (53.6%), and 3,210 aged 60 and older (11.6%).
Among all cases diagnosed in the last 14 days, 8,270 (36.7%) were reported in Nicosia, 7,112 (31.5%) in Limassol, 3,556 (15.8%) in Larnaca, 2,597 (11.5%) in Paphos, 1007 (4.5%) in Famagusta and 6 cases had residence abroad.
On March 2, 142 people with COVID-19 were hospitalised, compared to 196 on February 16.
The median age of hospitalised patients with COVID-19 is 73, 58.4% are males, and 33.3% are from the Nicosia district.
The median age of ICU patients is 58 (IQR: 49-72), and seven (53.9%) are females. Four (30.8%) of these ICU patients have comorbidities.
Over the last 14 days, 94,921 RT PCR and 1,347,575 rapid antigen tests were performed (10,689.3 RT PCR and 151,753.9 rapid antigen tests per 100,000 population).
Some 36.6% cases (9,292) reported no symptoms and 63.4% (16,113) reported at least one symptom.
Deaths declined
On March 2, a total of 997 people who died with COVID were reported to the Ministry of Health, of which 61.4% were men (612 deaths) and 38.6% were women (385 deaths).
Of those 997 deaths, 863 (87%) had COVID-19 as the underlying cause, while 61.6% were men (532 deaths) and 38.4% women.
The COVID-19 associated mortality is 97.2 per 100,000 population.
According to the ministry, 50% of the total number of deaths of people diagnosed with COVID-19 were aged 69-86 years, with a median age of death of 79 years.
In February, the total number of deaths of people diagnosed with COVID-19 was 99 compared to 109 in January, of whom 91 died from the virus.
Some 56% of deaths in February were people aged 60 and over without vaccination history.
The month with the highest number of deaths since the pandemic was January 2022 (109, 10.9%), exceeding August 2021 (100, 10.0%), February 2022 (99, 9.9%) and January 2021 (97, 9.7%).
The highest percentage of COVID-19 deaths were residents of Limassol (306, 35.5%), followed by Nicosia district (264, 30.6%), Larnaca (156, 18.1%), Paphos (78, 9.0%) and Famagusta (48, 5.6%).
