Coronavirus: one death, 705 new cases announced on Friday (Updated)

The health ministry announced one death and 705 new cases of Covid-19 on Friday from a record 59,144 PCR and rapid tests, yielding a positivity rate of 1.19. per cent.

The health ministry had initially stated that the positivity rate was 1.33 per cent but later issued a correction, revising it down to 1.19 per cent.

The death concerned a woman aged 88 at Limassol general hospital with underlying conditions who was not vaccinated – raising the total number of Covid-19 deaths to 261.

There are 193 people in hospitals of whom 45 are in serious condition.

Of the 45 in serious condition, 22 are intubated, four are in ICUs but not on ventilators and 19 are in the high dependency unit.

Of the 59,114 tests carried out on Friday, there were 5,204 PCR tests and the remaining 53,940 were from rapid tests.

About half of Friday’s positives, 322, were detected from the rapid tests carried out via the government’s programme and a further five from 369 rapid tests taken privately.

A total of 31 positives were recorded from 9,455 rapid tests taken in the education sector and five from 5,732 rapid tests taken at businesses.

The rest were from PCR tests and the breakdown is as follows: 317 from 1,494 contact tracing tests, six from 1,870 tests on travellers at the airports, 35 from 1,350 private tests, 19 from 363 tests at hospitals and one from 127 tests taken after being referred to do so by their GP.

As for the positivity rate recorded amongst the districts via rapid tests, Limassol remained at the top with a rate of 1.11 per cent after 117 positives were identified out of 10,496 tests.

Nicosia’s rate was 0.69 per cent with 111 positives from 16,076 tests, followed by Larnaca’s 0.69 per cent with 34 positives from 4,935 tests.

Paphos’ positivity rate was recorded at 0.53 per cent with 15 positives from 2,853 tests and finally Famagusta’s positivity rate of 0.28 per cent identified after seven positives were found via 2,485 tests.