The health ministry announced two deaths and 133 new cases of Covid-19 on Friday.

The deaths concerned an 88-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman with underlying conditions. Both died in Nicosia hospital after being treated in the ICU. This brings the total deaths to 210, of whom 141 were men and 69 women with an average age of 79.

There are 113 people in hospitals, 34 of whom are in serious condition. Of the 34 patients who are critical, 21 are intubated, two are in ICU and 11 in the High Dependency Unit.

A total of 30,333 tests were carried out by means of PCR and rapid tests with 133 new cases, and a positivity rate of 0.44 per cent.

The total number of positives to date is 31,512.

Of the 30,333 tests 1,872 were PCR and 28,461 rapid tests. The majority, 68 of the 133 positives came through rapid testing while 32 came from 249 samples taken through contact tracing, and 23 cases from 1,021 samples taken through private initiative.

Thiirty-five samples processed by hospital labs and taken through GP referrals yielded no positives.

In addition, 260 samples were taken at airports with no positives.

Nine cases were detected in Nicosia, 42 in Limassol, ten in Larnaca, four in Paphos and three in Famagusta.

In the north, 74 new cases were announced on Friday through 6,325 PCR tests performed in the last 24 hours.

In a written statement, ‘health minister’ Ali Pilli said that two cases were detected at the airport, 18 from contact tracing and 54 local infections.

Thirty cases were detected in Nicosia, 34 in Kyrenia, three in Famagusta, two in Morphou, two in Trikomo and one in Lefka.