Medical and healthcare workers in the struggle to tackle coronavirus, at Nicosia General Hospital, Cyprus

COVID19: Oldest victim dies at 101, rate leaps to 4.9%

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Cyprus reported three coronavirus deaths on Sunday, including the oldest victim of the pandemic, a 101 year old woman, as the benchmark transmission rate leapd to a new high 4.9%.

New daily cases remained well above the 3,000 mark from last Sunday and rose from the previous day to 3,698, with hospitalisations galloping to 143, of whom 25 are in a critical state.

The Health Ministry said in its Covid bulletin that the latest victims were two men, aged 72 and 81, as well as a 101 year old woman, raising the March death toll to 44, with the total number of Covid-19 victims since the pandemic started at 914.

January was the deadliest month on record with 101, followed by 91 in February, overtaking the previous record of 81 last August.

The number of patients being treated in state hospitals rose significantly for the second day in a row, up by 17 from Saturday’s 126 to 143, with critical cases up four at 21.

Intubated patients increased to eight, while 58% of hospitalised COVID-19 patients were unvaccinated.

Some 24 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 rose to 377,356.

A total of 75,402 PCR and rapid tests were conducted during the past 24 hours, about 1,300 more than the previous day.

With a steady number of tests, and a rise in new cases from 3,347 to 3,698, the benchmark ‘positivity rate’ leapt  to a new high of 4.9%, up from Saturday’s 4.51% and Wednesday’s previous peak of 4.43%. This rate is almost five times above the safe marker of 1%.

Of the new infections, 133 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections.

There were four new infections in care homes from 72 tests, while three were positive from 2,381 tests in restricted institutions.