One death from Covid-19 and 565 new cases with an overall positivity rate of 1.03 per cent were announced on Monday.

The health ministry said there were 196 people in hospital, of whom 47 were in serious condition. Of the 47, there are 24 people who are intubated, four in ICUs without ventilators and 19 in the high dependency unit.

The death was of 74-year-old man with underlying health conditions who had received the first dose of a vaccine against the coronavirus. It was not specified when the first dose was administered nor what vaccine it was.

As for the cases and tests, a total of 54,652 tests were carried out of which 5,414 were PCR tests and the remaining 49,238 were rapid tests.

The positives identified via PCR tests are as follows: 120 positives from 703 PCR contact tracing tests, five from 2,778 tests at the airports, 44 from 1,258 tests taken privately, 34 from 492 tests carried out at the hospitals and two from 183 tests taken after being referred to do so by GPs.

The majority of the cases, 346, were identified via the 48,724 rapid tests taken via the government’s programme and a further 14 positives from 514 rapid tests taken privately.

Limassol once again had the highest positivity rate amongst the districts, with 105 positives from 9,752 rapid tests.

The other districts appear to be catching up however, with Paphos’ positivity rate recorded at 0.94 per cent with 30 positives from 3,200 rapid tests, followed by Larnaca’s 0.81 per cent (46 positives from 5,651 tests), Nicosia’s 0.76 per cent (109 positives from 14,404 tests) and finally; Famagusta’s 0.56 per cent (11 positives from 1,965 tests).