COVID19: Two deaths as cases dip to 1,700

Cyprus reported two coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, with new infections dipping below the 2,000 marker to 1,692 cases, while hospitalisations dropped to 188, but critical patients increased.

The Health Ministry said in its Covid bulletin that the latest victims were two women, 81 and 88, raising the April death toll to 28 and 982 to date.

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 significantly from 204 to 188, having breached the 200-safety barrier the past few days. Of these, 31 were critical, two more from the day before.

Intubated patients remained at five, while 54% of hospitalised COVID-19 patients were reported as unvaccinated.

A further 11 patients are still considered post-Covid, three less than the previous day, having recovered from the virus, but remain intubated and in a serious state.

Total SARS-CoV-2 infections since March 2020 rose to 461,369.

Half tests are in schools

A total of 66,930 PCR and antigen rapid tests were conducted during the last 24 hours, about 17,000 less than the day before, with 30,500 tests in schools, nearly half of all tests.

Of the 9,584 tests in secondary schools, 27 were positive, and 63 from 18,860 tests in primary schools. A further 18 new infections were identified from the “test to stay” programme for students and teachers, which also includes kindergartens.

With a decrease in tests, as well as new cases from 2,254 to 1,692, the benchmark ‘positivity rate’ dropped from 2.71% to 2.53%, the same as on Sunday, down from the record 7.27% two weeks ago but more than double the safe limit of 1%.

Of the new infections, 20 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections.

A further 25 tested positive in care homes, while all 316 tests in restricted institutions were negative.