Cyprus reported three coronavirus deaths on Friday, with new daily cases dropping further to 2,028, while hospitalisations decreased to 202, as the government braces for the removal of most restrictions on Monday.
The health ministry said in its Covid bulletin that the latest victims were two women, aged 80 and 87, and an 85 year old man, raising the April death toll to 20 and 974 to date, with the number revised to include 19 more deaths attributed to the virus from May last year to February this year.
More than a quarter of all deaths occurred 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 92 in February, overtaking the previous record of 83 last August.
The total number of patients admitted in Covid wards in state hospitals decreased by six to 202, having breached the 200-safety barrier the past few days, despite briefly dipping below the marker, while critical cases were down six at 24.
Intubated patients decreased to four, while 59% of hospitalised COVID-19 patients were reported as unvaccinated.
A further 15 patients are still considered post-Covid, three more than the previous day, having recovered from the virus, but remain intubated and in a serious state.
454,200 cases to date
The total number of SARS-CoV-2 infections since March 2020 rose to 454,200.
A total 80,771 PCR and antigen rapid tests were conducted during the past 24 hours, about 1,400 more than the day before, with 32,600 tests in schools.
Of the 10,318 tests in secondary schools, 38 were positive, and 91 from 19,110 tests in primary schools. A further 20 new infections were identified from the “test to stay” programme for students and teachers, which also includes kindergartens, and five new cases in special schools.
With an increase in the number of tests, and a drop in new cases from 2,457 to 2,028, the benchmark ‘positivity rate’ improved again, dropping from 3.10% to 2.51%, down from the record 7.27% two weeks ago, but still more than double the safe marker of 1%.
Of the new infections, 76 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections.
There were 15 new infections in care homes and one in restricted institutions.
