Coronavirus: one death, 53 people test positive on Thursday (Updated)

Authorities on Thursday announced one more death from Covid-19, plus 53 new positives from ongoing island-wide testing.

The deceased was a woman aged 73, who passed away at the ICU of Nicosia general hospital.

In line with new policy, the health ministry did not disclose whether the deceased had any comorbidities or had been vaccinated for the coronavirus.

The death toll since the outbreak began in March 2020 now stands at 362, of whom 66 per cent are men. The average age of the deceased is 77.5 years.

On the hospital front, 58 patients were being treated, of whom 21 in a serious condition.

Of the 21 in a serious condition, 12 were intubated, three in ICU without intubation, and six in a high-dependency unit.

Famagusta general hospital, the referral facility for Covid-19 patients, had 13 patients; Nicosia general 26 patients; and Limassol general 19 patients.

The 53 positives came from a total of 43,163 tests (of which 5,325 with PCR), for a positivity rate of 0.12 per cent.

The total number of people having tested in Cyprus since March 2020 comes to 72,626.

A breakdown of the positives: eight from 103 samples through contact tracing; three from 3,300 samples taken at the airports; 11 from 1,468 samples taken through private initiative; three from 244 samples processed at the hospitals’ microbiology labs; two from 456 samples processed by private clinical labs and pharmacies; and 26 from 37,382 samples (antigen rapid test) taken via the free government testing programme.

By district, and for rapid tests only, the highest positivity was recorded in Limassol at 0.19 per cent; then Nicosia at 0.07 per cent; and Famagusta at 0.05 per cent.

Both Larnaca and Paphos recorded zero positives.