COVID19: New record 993 cases, patient rate spikes

Cyprus reported a new record 993 coronavirus cases on Thursday, up from Wednesday’s previous record of 952, as health authorities urged unvaccinated people to get a COVID-19 jab to contain the fourth wave of mass infections.

The Health Ministry expressed concern over the spread of the Delta variant, noting that nine out of ten people who have contracted the virus in recent weeks were not vaccinated.

Thursday’s Covid bulletin said no deaths were reported for the third consecutive day, with the death toll at two for July, and unchanged at 380 since the pandemic started.

Hospitalisations continued to rise attributed to the Delta strain, with 107 patients currently admitted in state hospitals, 14 more than the day before.

The number of critical cases rose by one from Wednesday to 28.

 

Test positivity rate ‘high’ at 2%

In all, 49,032 PCR and antigen rapid tests were conducted on the day which, based on the 993 new cases generated a national benchmark ‘test positivity’ rate of 2.03%, slightly down from 2.16% on Wednesday and about double the high-risk level of 1.00%.

Wednesday’s new coronavirus cases pushed the total of all infections during the past 16 months to 81,581.

Of the new cases, 71 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections, down from 109 the previous day, seven passengers arriving at Larnaca and Paphos airports were positive in PCR tests, and 142 cases were diagnosed from private lab and hospital tests, down from 156.

A further 773 new cases were diagnosed through the national free rapid testing programme, up from Wednesday’s 681, of which 262 were in Limassol with the highest test positivity rate of 2.83%, followed by 201 in Nicosia (1.31%), 94 in Larnaca (1.86%), 80 in Paphos (1.71%) and 66 in Famagusta district (1.92%).

Of the 479 samples from staff and residents at retirement homes, two tested positive, 17 were diagnosed among 936 samples in industrial zones as did eight soldiers among 388 tests in the National Guard.