Coronavirus: Three deaths, 573 new infections announced on Tuesday (update 2)

The health ministry announced the deaths of three people from Covid, including a 37-year-old woman, and 573 new infections on Tuesday after 62,555 tests.

At the same time, 263 people were being treated in hospital with 87 in serious or critical condition.

The deaths concern a woman, 37, and two men, 60 and 85.

Reports said the 37-year-old was not vaccinated. Her mother is also fighting for her life in the ICU. She has not been vaccinated either.

The number of deaths since the pandemic started in March last year has reached 447 — 292 men and 155 women. The average age is 77.

The number of recorded infections is 107,001.

Of the 87 patients in serious or critical condition, 50 were intubated, two were in the ICU without ventilation, and 35 in high dependency units. The ministry said 87.55 per cent of hospitalised Covid patients were not vaccinated.

The ministry said the positivity rate was 0.92 per cent.

Of the 573 cases, 83 were close contacts of previously detected infections. They were detected among 439 samples.

Ten cases were among 2,933 samples tested at the two airports and 102 were detected after 2,613 tests carried out privately.

State hospital labs reported eight infections in 226 samples.

Private labs and pharmacies reported 280 cases after testing 40,862 samples using rapid antigen and 90 cases in 15,329 samples were reported as part of the government’s screening programme, again using rapid antigen assays.