COVID19: Six deaths, drop in cases, hospitalisations

Cyprus reported six COVID-19 deaths on Friday, one more than last week, with a significant drop in new infections and a marginal drop in hospitalisations.

On Thursday, the health ministry said some 14 people died from an influenza infection during the winter months, mostly senior citizens.

The health ministry said in its weekly Covid bulletin that the latest victims were four women and two men, aged 60 to 97, raising the death toll since the pandemic started three years ago in March 2020 to 1,341.

The number of new cases dropped to 1,281 from 1,701 last week.

The average daily rate of infections remained below 200 and dropped to 183 from 243 the week before.

Coronavirus infections since the pandemic started rose to 653,667.

10 critical

The number of hospitalisations also dropped, down by three from last week to 41. Of these, 10 were in a critical state, one more from last week.

Testing was higher than last week’s level, reaching 61,062 PCR and rapid antigen tests, about 1,800 more than before.

These two factors prompted the benchmark ‘positivity rate’ to drop significantly to 2.09%, down from 2.87% last week. The infection rate remains just over two times higher than the safe rate of 1%.

Masks remain mandatory in hospitals, testing labs and pharmacies.

Free government testing sites are only available at state hospitals for visitors.