Health authorities on Thursday announced 65 new positives from island-wide testing for the coronavirus, representing a 0.19 per cent positivity rate from the samples processed.

That brings the total diagnosed to date as positive to the coronavirus to 73,444.

No new deaths attributed to Covid-19 were reported, with the death toll standing at 374 since March last year.

On the hospital front, 41 patients were being treated, of whom 15 in a serious condition. Of the 15 in a serious condition, eight are intubated, one in an ICU without intubation, and six in a high-dependency unit.

Overall 34,157 tests (of which 6,903 with PCR) were carried out.

The 65 latest positives broke down as follows: eight from 137 samples from contact tracing; 14 from 3,552 samples from samples at the airports; 11 from 2,937 samples taken by private initiative; two from 208 samples processed by the microbiology labs of general hospitals; two from 339 samples processed by private clinical labs and pharmacies; and 28 from 26,915 samples as part of the free government antigen rapid testing programme.

By district, and for rapid antigen tests only, the positivity rate in Nicosia was 0.06 per cent; Limassol 0.20 per cent; Larnaca 0.07 per cent; Paphos 0.13 per cent; Famagusta 0.09 per cent.

Tests across schools yielded no positives. One positive was detected from testing in the National Guard.