Cyprus reported seven deaths in its weekly Covid bulletin on Friday, as new cases rose marginally to 14,914 during the past seven days, double from mid-June, with hospitalisations breaking the 100-barrier to reach 117.
However, scientific advisors are not too concerned, as they say the transmission of new coronavirus variants is milder at present and hospitalisations are manageable, prompting the government to say it will not introduce new restrictions.
The total of all coronavirus infection cases since the pandemic started rose to 545,896.
The Health Ministry said the latest victims of the pandemic were four men, aged 76 to 87, and three women, 76 to 87, raising the July death toll to eleven and the to-date figure to 1,086.
The June death toll was limited to six and for May it was 23, while April’s figure was 75, just ahead of 67 in March.
January remained the deadliest month on record with 101 deaths, followed by 96 in February, overtaking the previous record of 84 last August.
Some 381, or 35% of all deaths in Cyprus have occurred in the first seven months of this year.
Hospitalisations once again increased within a week from 97 to 117, critical cases rose by one to nine, with four intubated patients.
A further two patients are still considered post-Covid, one more from the week before, having recovered from the virus but remaining intubated and in a serious state.
Average daily 2,198
The past week saw 15,386 14,914 new cases, up by 472 from last week, with the average daily climbing from 2,130 to 2,198.
Testing increased with a total of 122,335 PCR and rapid antigen tests were conducted during the past week, 11,000 more than the week before.
This helped stabilise the benchmark ‘positivity rate’ at 12.58%, having spiked to a new year-high of 13.42% last week, and is nearly 13 times above the safe limit of 1%.
Of the new Covid-19 cases, 11 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections.
With thousands of new recruits showing up for duty this week and the last, 18 soldiers serving in the National Guard tested positive and 85 new cases were reported in care homes, as well as 81 in restricted institutions.