COVID19: One death, hospitalisations above 200

Cyprus reported one coronavirus death on Wednesday, with new daily cases dropping below the 3,000 marker to 2,716, while hospitalisations remained above the 200-bed safety level at 202, as the government ponders lifting restrictions in retails stores and workplaces.

The health ministry said in its Covid bulletin that the latest victim was a 63 year old man, raising the April death toll to 15 and 950 to date, more than a quarter of whom in the first three months 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 decreased by five to 202, having breached the 200-safety barrier the past few days, despite briefly dipping below the marker, while critical cases were down three at 27.

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

A further 12 patients are still considered post-Covid, one less than the previous day, 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 449,715.

A total 72,788 PCR and antigen rapid tests were conducted during the past 24 hours, about 12,000 less than the day before, with 13,900 tests, mainly in high schools.

Of the 9,982 tests in secondary schools, 45 were positive, while 43 new infections were identified from the “test to stay” programme for students and teachers, which also includes kindergartens.

With a drop in the number of tests, as well as in new cases from 2,716, the benchmark ‘positivity rate’ rose marginally from 3.53% to 3.73%, down from the record 7.27% nearly two weeks ago, and nearly four times above the safe marker of 1%.

Of the new infections, 82 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections.

There were 14 new infections in care homes and four in restricted institutions.