COVID19: Three deaths, oldest 102, more patients

Cyprus reported three coronavirus deaths on Saturday, including the oldest victim at 102 years, with new daily cases rising to 3,894, down from Monday’s record 6,494, while hospitalisations broke past the 200-level and increased to 201.

The health ministry said in its Covid bulletin that two men died during the past 24 hours, aged 91 and 102, as well as an 82 year old woman. The previous oldest victim was a 101 year old woman who died on march 20.

Five people have died in the first two days of April, raising the total number of Covid-19 victims to 940, more than a quarter of whom died in the first quarter of this year.

March ended with 65 coronavirus deaths, while January was the deadliest month on record with 101, followed by 91 in February, overtaking the previous record of 81 last August.

The total number of patients admitted in Covid wards in state hospitals increased by ten to 201, inching above the first safety barrier based on the number of available hospital beds, while critical cases were also higher, up by ten at 33.

Intubated patients rose to nine, while 53% of hospitalised COVID-19 patients were unvaccinated.

13 post-Covid patients

A further 13 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 436,949.

A total 79,660 PCR and antigen rapid tests were conducted during the past 24 hours, 38,000 more from the day before.

With an increase in the number of tests, as well as new cases from 2,491 to 3,894, the benchmark ‘positivity rate’ dropped from 6.03% to 4.89%, down from last Friday’s record 7.27%, and just under five times above the safe marker of 1%.

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

There were 45 new infections in care homes and none in restricted institutions.