COVID19: Two deaths, patient numbers up

Cyprus reported two coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, as new daily cases remained above the 3,000 mark but dropped to 3,294, with hospitalisations rising to 108, of whom 17 are critical.

The Health Ministry said in its Covid bulletin that the latest victims were two men, aged 78 and 92, raising the death toll since the pandemic started to 904, with the March figure at 39.

January was the deadliest month on record with 101, followed by 91 in February, overtaking the previous record of 80 last August.

The number of patients being treated for Covid-19 rose again, from 101 to 108, with critical cases unchanged at 17.

Intubated patients remained the same at six, while 59% of hospitalised COVID-19 patients were unvaccinated.

Some 21 patients are still considered post-Covid, having recovered from the virus, but remain intubated and in a serious state.

Total infections rise to 360,078

The total number of SARS-CoV-2 infections since March 2020 has risen to 360,078.

A total of 92,295 PCR and rapid tests were conducted during the past 24 hours, about 19,000 less than the previous day, of which 36,000 in schools.

Of the 20,062 tests in primary schools, 121 were positive, as were 111 from 11,612 tests in high schools. A further 56 infections were discovered from the “test to stay” programme for students and teachers.

With a drop in the number of tests, as well as in new cases from 3,294, the benchmark ‘positivity rate’ dropped from 3.38% to 3.57%, more than triple the safe marker of 1%.

Having peaked at 5,457 on January 4, driven by a spike in the Omicron variant, new cases remained below 2,500 in recent weeks and dropped briefly to 1,500-1,700 the previous weekend.

Of the new infections, 132 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections.

New infections in care homes decreased to 19 from among 1,264 tests, while four tested positive from 151 tests in restricted institutions.