Coronavirus: 199 new cases announced on Thursday (Updated)

The health ministry announced 199 new cases of Covid-19 on Thursday from 28,461 PCR and rapid tests with a positivity rate of 0.7%.

There were no new deaths, and the total remains at 231.

There are 82  people in hospitals, of whom 19 are in a serious condition. Of these, 10 are intubated.

Of the 28,461 tests 2,304 were PCR and 26,157 were rapid tests.

Of the total 199 cases detected, 100 were from the government’s rapid testing programme, and 62 of those were in Limassol, which had a positivity rate of 0.83%, the highest islandwide.

The remainder were:

• 64 positives came from 429 samples obtained through primary contact tracing.
• 27 came from 940 samples taken through private initiative.
• 6 from 413 samples taken in hospitals
• 2 from 160 samples tested  by the antigen rapid test method in private clinical laboratories.

In addition, the following tests were performed without detecting any cases:

• 291 samples taken as part of a passenger checks at airports
• 88 samples were taken to retest UK returnees in quarantine
• 140 samples taken through GP referrals
• 3 samples taken in the context of controls on the Cyprus Basketball Federation and the Cyprus Volleyball Federation.