Coronavirus: One death, 475 new cases announced Tuesday (updated)

The health ministry announced one death and 475 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, with a positivity rate of 0.99 per cent, taking Cyprus past the 40,000 cases mark.

The death concerns a 73-year-old man who had underlying health conditions and raises the total Covid-19 deaths to 241, while the average age remains at 79.

There are currently 221 patients in hospital, of which 42 are in serious condition and of those 11 are intubated, 12 are receiving ICU treatment but without ventilators and 19 are in a high dependency unit.

As for the cases, the positives were identified via 47,884 tests of which 44,044 were rapid tests and the remaining 3,840 were PCR tests.

The government’s rapid tests returned 250 positives while ten of 679 rapid tests taken privately were positive.

From the PCR tests 163 positives were from 1,015 contact tracing tests, ten positives were from 1,403 tests at the airports, 28 were from 745 tests taken privately, 11 were from 371 tests at general hospitals and finally, three positives were from 305 tests taken after referrals by GPs.

The district positivity rate breakdown among the rapid tests showed a familiar pattern, with Limassol’s 11,207 rapid tests yielding 129 positives with a positivity rate of 1.15 per cent.

Famagusta’s 1,843 tests identified nine positives with a rate of 0.49 per cent, followed by Nicosia’s 14,080 tests finding 66 positive (0.47 per cent), Paphos’ 2,881 tests finding 13 positive (0.45 per cent), and finally, Larnaca’s 5,868 tests finding 21 positive (0.36 per cent).