Coronavirus: No deaths, 142 new infections announced on Wednesday (updated)

There were no deaths from Covid in the past 24 hours, as 142 new infections were detected after 46,145 tests, a positivity rate of 0.31 per cent, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

Sixty-three people were being treated in hospital, 25 in serious or critical condition. The ministry said 62.69 per cent of hospitalised patients were not vaccinated.

Ten post-Covid patients were being treated in the ICU on a ventilator.

So far, the virus has claimed the lives of 559 people while the number of infections since March last year has reached 121,842.

Most of the deceased were men, 354. The average age is 76.2.

Nine of the 25 were intubated, two were in an ICU without intubation, and 14 were being treated in high dependency units.

Of the new cases, 35 were detected in 375 samples collected from the close contacts of previously confirmed cases.

Two cases concerned travellers who had just arrived in Cyprus. They were found among 2,170 samples tested at the two airports.

The ministry said 28 cases were among 1,590 samples tested privately, and six were reported by state hospital labs after testing 220 people.

Private labs and pharmacies reported 52 cases in 20,697 rapid antigen tests, while units that are part of the state’s mass screening programme detected 19 cases in 20,900 samples.