Coronavirus: 323 new cases, no deaths (updated)

Health authorities announced 323 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday from 33,194 tests, a positivity rate of 0.97 per cent. No deaths from the virus were reported.

Eighty-nine people were being treated in hospital, 22 in serious or critical condition.

Covid-19 has so far claimed the lives of 232 people while the number of recorded cases since the start of the pandemic last March has reached 35,620.

Of the 22 serious or critical patients, nine were intubated while four were being treated in ICUs without intubation. Nine others were in high dependency units.

Most deaths since the start of the pandemic concerned men, 155, or 67 per cent. The average age is 79.

Authorities carried out 33,194 tests – 2,929 PCR – detecting 323 new infections.

Ninety-five concerned close contacts of confirmed cases detected in 751 samples.

In 30,026 samples tested by rapid antigen tests, authorities found 184 positives.

Twenty-seven cases were detected among 1,253 samples tested by private laboratories and one case was found among 260 samples collected from people referred by GPs.

State hospital labs detected 10 infections in 370 samples and six more were found in 239 samples tested by antigen tests in private labs.

Turkish Cypriots announced one death and 27 new cases on Wednesday from 6,038 tests.

The number of deaths in the north is 24 while infections have reached 3,519.