COVID19: 9 deaths as cases, hospitalisations drop

Cyprus reported nine coronavirus deaths in the past week, raising the April death toll to 61, less than the 65 reported in March, as hospitalisations and new infections continued to recede.

The health ministry said in its weekly Covid bulletin on Friday that the latest victims were five men and four women. The youngest was a 59 year old woman and the eldest a 93 year old man.

This raised the death toll since the pandemic started to 1015, having broken past the 1,000-barrier a week ago.

Some 319, or just under a third of all deaths occurred in the first four months of this year.

January was the deadliest month on record with 101 deaths, followed by 92 in February, overtaking the previous record of 83 last August.

Hospitalisations continued to drop significantly within a week from 108 last Thursday to 89, critical cases decreased from 25 to 20, while intubated patients were up two at ten.

The rate of unvaccinated patients being treated in state hospitals for Covid-19 dropped from 44% last week to 43%.

In a week, 3,786 new infections were reported, on average 541 daily, down from 6,115 cases last week, with an average 874 daily.

11 still post-Covid

A further 11 patients are still considered post-Covid, two more than the week before, having recovered from the virus, but remain intubated and in a serious state.

Total SARS-CoV-2 infections since March 2020 rose to 480,220.

A total of 143,329 PCR and antigen rapid tests were conducted during the past week, nearly half the 269,310 tested last week, with no tests in schools due to the Greek Orthodox Easter break.

High school students, primary pupils and in kindergartens will need to be tested to be allowed back in class on Monday.

With a drop in tests, as well as new cases, the benchmark ‘positivity rate’ rose from 2.27% to 2.64%, down from the record 7.27% in late March and double the safe limit of 1%.

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

A further 56 tested positive in care homes, while no positive cases in restricted institutions.