Coronavirus: cumulative diagnosis rate drops to 183 per 100,000 population

The cumulative diagnosis rate of coronavirus cases in Cyprus has fallen to 183 per 100,000 population over the last 14 days, the health ministry said on Friday.

The incidence rate was 243 per 100,000 people in the middle of January, a decrease from the 417 per 100,000 in the beginning of the same month.

The decrease was recorded in the bi-weekly national surveillance report following the implementation of lockdown measures by the ministry on January 10.

Between January 20 to February 2, the health ministry diagnosed 1,625 cases, compared with 2,165 cases during the two weeks before that, the report said.

The median age was 39 years, including 281 infants and children under 19.

There is an almost equal gender representation of 830 women and 795 men. The majority of the cases, (98.8 per cent) were locally acquired while only 20 cases were imported. Limassol recorded the highest number of cases, counting 732, followed by Nicosia with 459 cases. The lease number of coronavirus infections was recorded in Paphos with 72 cases.

Most of those who tested positive over the last 14 days (64.7 per cent, or 1,051 cases) reported at least one symptom, while the rest 574 people did not experience any symptoms at diagnosis.

The cases were recorded from 23,461 PCR and 215,765 rapid tests.

As of February 3, 125 people were still hospitalided with a median age of 70 years. Most of the hospital admissions, 47, also came from Limassol.

The report said 28 cases are in intensive care units (ICU), of them 24 are intubated. The median age of the ICU patients is 71 and more than half of them are males. Fifteen of the patients had pre-existing conditions.

Cyprus saw 204 coronavirus related deaths since the pandemic outbreak, with 35 per cent of them recorded in January. Sixteen deaths were recorded in the fourth week of 2021, same amount as in the third week of the new year.