Coronavirus: 243 new cases announced on Saturday (Updated)

The health ministry announced 243 new cases of Covid-19 on Saturday from 40,747 PCR and rapid tests, an overall positivity rate of 0.6 per cent.

There were no new deaths. The total remains at 231.

Limassol again had the lion’s share of the cases detected from rapid testing with 102 out of the 173 detected using the antigen tests, a positivity rate of 0.9 per cent.

Nicosia had 43 of those cases but it’s positivity rate was only 0.2 per cent. Of the total 40,747 tests done on Saturday, 2,587 were PCR and 38,160 were antigen rapid tests.

The remainder of the cases detected on Saturday were as follows:

• 38 from 351 samples taken through contact tracing
• 2 from 319 samples taken at airports
• 26 from 1,354 samples taken through private initiative.
• 2 from 178 samples tested at hospital labs
• 1 from 248 samples taken through GP referrals
• 1 from 268 rapid tests done by private labs

There are 78  people in hospitals of whom  20  are in serious condition. Of these 10 are intubated.