Coronavirus: Two deaths, 287 new cases

Two deaths from coronavirus and 287 new cases were announced on Tuesday out of 50,341 PCR and rapid tests, a positivity rate of 0.57 per cent.

The death of a woman, aged 59, who died of the virus on August 26 was only announced on Tuesday. A man, aged 84, also died.

There are 138 in hospital with 54 in serious condition. The health ministry said 78.99 per cent of those in hospital have not been vaccinated.

There are also 16 post-Covid (no longer infectious) patients receiving urgent care in the ICUs.

Of the 50,341 tests carried out on Tuesday there was a total of 6,424 PCR tests with the remaining 43,917 being rapid tests.

The breakdown for the positives from PCR tests is as follows: 35 were identified from 341 contact tracing tests, four from 2,717 tests carried out at the airports, 79 from 2,914 tests taken privately, eight from 221 tests taken at hospitals and one from 213 tests taken following referrals by GPs.

The 30,191 rapid tests taken privately yielded 109 positives.

A further 50 positives were identified via the government’s rapid test programme, for select groups, which carried out 13,726 tests.

According to the data following the government’s screening programme Nicosia had 21 positives following 5,916 rapid tests.

Next was Limassol with its 11 positives from 2,665 tests, followed by Larnaca’s four from 1,629 tests, Paphos’ six from 1,106 tests and, finally, Famagusta’s five from 1,073 tests.

Three people tested positive amongst Nicosia’s care homes from 367 tests.