Health authorities on Thursday announced five deaths attributed to Covid-19, as the number of patients continued declining while testing yielded 254 new positives.

The five decedents were four men – aged 71, 65, 47 and 84 – and a 57-year-old woman. They all passed away at Nicosia general on Wednesday.

That brings the Covid death toll to 491, of whom 64 per cent are men. The average age of the deceased is 77 years.

The health ministry no longer discloses whether the deceased had underlying conditions or their vaccination status.

On the hospital front, 178 patients were being treated for Covid-19, of whom 72 were said to be in a serious condition. Of the 72, 31 were intubated, seven in ICU but not on a ventilator, and 34 in high-dependency units.

The ministry said also that 15 post-Covid patients, no longer considered infectious, are still on a ventilator in ICUs.

A total of 45,382 tests – of which 5,367 done with PCR – yielded 254 positives, for a positivity rate of 0.56 per cent.

A breakdown of the latest positives: six from 3,031 samples taken at the airports; 49 from 2,148 samples taken via private initiative; 11 from 179 samples processed at the microbiology labs of general hospitals; 115 from 25,640 samples (rapid tests) taken at private clinical labs and pharmacies; and 73 from 14,375 samples (rapid tests) from the health ministry’s programme.

Three of the positives detected came from nursing homes in the Famagusta district.