COVID19: Four deaths, infection rate rises

Cyprus reported four coronavirus deaths on Saturday, as new daily cases receded to under 3,000 with hospitalisations up to 110, of whom 17 are critical.

The Health Ministry said in its Covid bulletin the latest victims were two women and two men aged 59 to 98.

This raised the March death toll to 34 and the national figure to 899, two years into the pandemic.

January was the deadliest month on record, adjusted to 101, followed by 91 in February, overtaking the previous record of 80 last August.

Intubated patients decreased to five, while 53.64% of hospitalised COVID-19 patients were unvaccinated.

Some 22 patients are still considered post-Covid, having recovered from the virus, but remain intubated and in a serious state.

Infections exceed 350,000

The total number of SARS-CoV-2 infections since March 2020 has risen to 350,688.

A total of 78,517 PCR and rapid tests were conducted during the past 24 hours, about 14,000 less than the previous day.

With a big drop in the number of tests and fewer new cases from 3,020 to 2,812, the benchmark ‘positivity rate’ rose from 3.26% to 3.58%, more than triple the safe marker of 1%.

New cases remain relatively high, having peaked at 5,457 on January 4, driven by a spike in the Omicron variant.

Of the new infections, 102 were identified through contact tracing linked to earlier infections.

From 597 tests in care homes, 19 cases were detected, a rate of 3.18%.