Coronavirus: Three deaths, 580 people test positive on Thursday (Updated)

Health authorities on Thursday announced three deaths attributed to Covid-19, while testing yielded 580 new positives.

The three latest fatalities were: a man aged 71, who passed away on Wednesday at Larnaca general hospital; a woman aged 88, who also passed away on Wednesday at Limassol general hospital; and a woman aged 85, who died Thursday at Famagusta general hospital.

That brings the death toll to 433, of whom 65 per cent are men.  The average age of the deceased is 77 years.

The health ministry no longer discloses whether Covid fatalities had underlying conditions, nor their vaccination status.

Meantime the number of coronavirus patients in hospital went back up, to 293, of whom 96 were said to be in a serious condition.

Of these 96, 45 were intubated, five in ICU but not intubated, and 46 in a high-dependency units. The ministry said 89.77 per cent of patients are not vaccinated.

A total of 36,141 tests – of which 8,661 done with PCR – yielded 580 positives, for a positivity rate of 1.6 per cent.

A breakdown of the positives: 88 from 801 samples processed through contact tracing; nine from 3,638 samples taken at the airports; 136 from 3,874 samples taken via private initiative; 10 from 197 samples processed by the microbiology labs at general hospitals; one from 151 samples through doctor referrals; 173 from 11,223 samples processed at private clinical labs and pharmacies; and 163 from 16,257 samples through the health ministry’s testing programme.

The total number of positives ever detected has come to 104,469.