Coronavirus: national Covid report shows virus still has strong grip on Cyprus

The health ministry’s bi-weekly national report was published on Friday, which reiterated that the pandemic still has a strong grip on Cyprus.

The report, which covers data from the outbreak in March up until January 27, 2021, showed however that January was the second deadliest month on record, with 77 deaths so far.

There’s a lot of figures and graphs, but the report essentially summarises the course of the pandemic in Cyprus for the past ten months.

Nicosia and Limassol have fared the worst, both in terms of deaths (69 and 58 respectively) and cases recorded.

In contrast, Paphos and Famagusta account for 15 and 10 deaths respectively.

During the month of January however, Larnaca has caught up in the grim graph and is in second place – with Nicosia recording 24 deaths, Larnaca 17, Limassol 14, Paphos six and Famagusta five.

The months of December (85 deaths) and January (77) are a stark reminder of pandemic’s deadly course: there was just four deaths in May, two in June, none in July, one in August, two September and four October. The steep increase began in November, with 35 deaths.

The age group hardest hit by Covid-19 are the 80-84-year-olds, accounting for 60 deaths, or 26 per cent of the total.

Three age groups have recorded just one death each, those being the 25-29, 45-49, and 50-54 sections.

Two deaths occurred in the 55-59 category, meaning that five people under the age of 60 have died.

Notably, no one aged 30-44 has died with, or from, Covid-19.

Two deaths occurred in the 55-59 group but the 60-64 category is where the deaths begin to increase, with 17 deaths so far in the latter.

The gender disparity in terms of deaths also appears to decrease after the 80-84 group (38 men, 22 women).

Amongst those aged 85-89 that have died, 21 were men and 19 were women. In the 90-94 group, 12 men died and 13 women, followed by the 95+ group, with six men and four women.

As for the cases, the past 14 days show the Limassol remains the standout city – recording almost half of all cases, despite months of lockdown-type restrictions.

Of the 2,165 cases during the past two weeks, Limassol accounted for 904, followed by Nicosia with 696, Larnaca at 321, Paphos 124, Famagusta 77 and ‘other’ with 43.

The good news is that cases have fallen from 417 per 100,000 to 243 per100,000 and hospital admissions have fallen from 14 a day to ten a day.