Coronavirus: Two deaths, 77 new cases, double digits at last

Health authorities on Thursday announced two more deaths from Covid-19, and 77 new positives from 49,364 tests island-wide, a positivity rate 0.16 per cent.

The latest deaths concerned a man aged 97, who died at Nicosia general hospital; and a woman aged 89 who passed away at Larnaca general hospital.

That brings the death toll to 350, of whom 232 are men and 118 women. The average age of the deceased is 77.5 years.

Going with a policy adopted recently, authorities did not disclose whether the deceased had underlying conditions or whether they were vaccinated.

On the hospital front, 134 people were being treated for Covid-19, of whom 48 in a serious condition.

Of the 48 in a serious condition, 28 are intubated, three treated in an ICU without intubation, and 17 in high-dependency units.

The Famagusta referral hospital for Covid was treating 27 patients; Nicosia general hospital 58; Limassol general 32; Larnaca eight; Paphos six; and Makarios hospital three.

As far as testing went, the 77 positives came from 49,364 PCR and rapid tests, for a positivity rate of 0.16 per cent.

The latest positives bring the total since the outbreak last year to 71,610.

A breakdown of the 77 positives: 15 from 484 samples through contact tracing; three from 1,953 samples taken at the airports; 11 from 1,803 samples taken through private initiative; four from 300 samples processed at the microbiology laboratories of general hospitals; seven from 635 samples (antigen rapid test) processed by private clinical labs and pharmacies; and 37 from 44,078 from the free island-wide government testing programme.

By district, and concerning rapid tests only, Famagusta had the highest positivity rate at 0.17 per cent; then Larnaca at 0.15 per cent; Limassol at 0.13 per cent; and Nicosia at 0.09 per cent.

Zero positives were detected in the Paphos district, where 4,172 free tests were carried out.