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Coronavirus: Weekly report shows steep increase in cases (updated)

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The 14-day cumulative rate of Covid cases has reached 749.5 per 100,000, the weekly coronavirus surveillance report issued by the health ministry said on Friday.

The report covered the period March 31 to April 13. Last week’s report recorded a figure of 621.1, again up from the 548.5 the week before that.

The new data means that Cyprus remains in the ECDC’s ‘dark red’ zone, as its 14-day cumulative Covid-19 diagnosis rate exceeds 500.

Per district, Limassol still has the highest figure but its rate of increase is significantly lower compared to Larnaca’s and Nicosia’s.

Specifically, Limassol’s cases per 100,000 stood at 934.4 (up from 899), Larnaca’s 773 (up from 555), Nicosia’s 693 (up from 524), Paphos’ 478 (up from 359) and Famagusta 445 (up from 353).

Also worth noting is that Nicosia accounted for 36.1 per cent (2,401) of all cases identified during the past two week weeks – ahead of Limassol’s 34.9 per cent (2,320 cases).

In its report, the health ministry highlighted the fact that cases among those aged 70 and above are significantly lower than the younger groups – emphasising the value of vaccines.

The ministry emphasised that those aged 80 and above had an infection rate of 232.8/100,000, the lowest of all age groups, compared to the 20-59-year-olds who had a rate of 878.8 per 100,000 – the highest among all age groups.

The 6,656 cases, from March 31 through to April 13, were identified through a very high number of tests – 69,096 PCR tests and 672,155 rapid tests.

The median age of those testing positive was 34, with women just slightly making up the majority with 51.6 per cent.

But the gender disparity was wider, as has been the trend throughout the pandemic, in the data for hospitalisations and fatalities.

As of April 15, the report said, 244 people were in hospital, 57.4 per cent of whom were men. This figure rose to 66.7 per cent when looking at those in ICUs, which is largely consistent with the gender disparity in terms of deaths – as of the 282 Covid-19 deaths reported by April 15, men accounted for 65.6 per cent, 185 people.

In total, 5.4 per cent of people who tested positive for Covid-19 received hospital treatment with the median age being 63.

Of those hospitalised, 10.3 per cent have been admitted to the ICU, with a median age of 68, with the median length of stay being 13 days.

By district, Limassol accounts for the majority of Covid-19 deaths with 108 (38.3 per cent), followed by Nicosia with 93 (33 per cent), Larnaca with 48 (17 per cent), 19 from Paphos (6.7 per cent) and 11 from Famagusta (3.9 per cent).

The official case fatality rate stands at 0.6 per cent, also described as 31.8 per 100,000.

The report comes amid alarm over the Thursday’s six deaths and 690 cases along with a positivity rate of 1.36 per cent.

Notably however, all were aged 67-97 and only two had been vaccinated, but had received only their first shot.

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