Coronavirus: Improvement in Limassol, positivity rate rises in Nicosia, Larnaca

Cyprus’ positivity rate from coronavirus rapid tests has stabilised over the last 14 days, the health ministry said on Friday while reiterating the need to abide by the social distancing measures.

The results were presented in the latest report of the epidemiological team which said Limassol, following an upsurge of cases in recent weeks, recorded a slight decrease in cases with its positivity rate falling to 0.8 per cent between March 17 to 30 from 1 per cent over the previous two weeks.

During the same period, Nicosia’s positivity rate increased to 0.5 per cent from 0.3 per cent and Larnaca saw an increase of 0.6 per cent from 0.4 per cent in the previous 14 days.

In total, the country recorded 4,871 coronavirus cases from 58,847 PCR and 573,258 rapid antigen tests in the last 14 days.

The majority of the cases were people under 60.

The health ministry warned the public the data are still fragile and “can change at any time” and called on the public to observe the personal health measures and social distancing.

The transmission rate is at 0.94, the report said, which refers to the number of people a positive case is expected to infect.

According to the report, the cumulative diagnosis rate also recorded a slight decrease to 548.5/100,000 from 573.5/100,000, with Limassol’s rate falling to 978.7/100,000 from 1130.1/100,000 while still remaining significantly higher than the safety limit set by ECDC at 150 per 100,000 residents.

Meanwhile the cumulative diagnosis rate of Larnaca and Famagusta increased to 404.7/100,000 from 328.2/100,000 and to 431.5/100,000 from 359.9/100,000 respectively.

Analysing the characteristics of the cases, the epidemiological team said 64.5 per cent were adults aged 20 to 59, followed by infants and children under 19 who amounted for 21 per cent of the cases. People aged 60 and older, who used to account for the majority of cases, amounted for just 14.5 per cent of the cases.

Vaccinations contributed to a large decree for the reduction of positive cases belonging to the age group of 75 and older, the health ministry explained.

According to the data, 80.7 per cent of people aged 80 and over have been vaccinated, while in people aged 70-79 the vaccination coverage is at 70 per cent as vaccinations at these ages still continue, it was added.

The median age of people hospitalised is 63 years with 192 people still hospitalised as of March 31 of whom 108 patients came from the Limassol district.

Twenty-six patients were treated in the ICU including 22 intubated with a median age of 67 years, while 21 of them have pre-existing health conditions according to the report.

March saw 28 coronavirus deaths, of which 89 per cent had Limassol as a permanent residence.

This means Limassol has the highest number of Covid deaths in Cyprus with 95, followed by Nicosia with 89 deaths. Larnaca recorded 43 coronavirus deaths, Paphos 18 while 11 people died from Covid who came from Famagusta.

Since the start of the year, following the roll-out of vaccinations for the elderly, the rate of Covid deaths of people aged 70 to 79 increased by 64 per cent while the percentage of deaths in people aged 80 and over decreased by 19 per cent.