COVID19: Teenager among latest victims

Cyprus reported another four COVID-19 deaths on Friday, including a 19-year-old man, one of the pandemic’s youngest victims.

The latest deaths also claimed another two men and one woman, aged 79 to 88.

According to the Health Ministry’s latest report released on Friday, covering two weeks (April 7-20), the COVID-19 deaths take the number of fatalities to 1,354.

The deaths were recorded between April 3 – 10.

The Health Ministry said that another 1,546 cases of COVID-19 were detected, keeping the average rate below 1,000, for the third time in a row.

The average daily rate of infections dropped to 110 from 177 in the last report.

Coronavirus infections since the pandemic started in March 2020 rose to 658,450.

Hospitalisations dropped to 46 from 50 compared to the last report.

Of these, six were in a more serious state, with three of them remaining intubated.

Testing reached 63,125 PCR and rapid antigen tests, just 11,300 more than the 51,855 reported in the previous report.

The low number of tests prompted the benchmark ‘positivity rate’ to jump slightly to 2.44%, up from 2.39%.

The infection rate remains 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.

The Health Ministry said the next COVID report would be on May 6.