Coronavirus: Two deaths and 126 new cases

Two deaths and 126 new coronavirus cases were reported by the health ministry on Saturday after 44,460 PCR and rapid tests.

The deaths concerned two men, aged 76 and 80, who both died at Paphos general hospital the previous day.

According to the ministry’s announcement, the cases resulted from 40,484 rapid tests and 3,976 PCR tests, with a positivity rate of 0.28 per cent.

Most cases, 59, were detected after 31,117 tests at private labs and pharmacies while 31 cases were detected following a private initiative and 23 cases were traced through a rapid test at the health ministry’s free testing sites.

Eleven cases were also detected after 2,352 samples taken during random sampling at the airports, and two from 142 samples at the labs of state hospitals.

A total of 51 patients were hospitalised with coronavirus as of Saturday, of whom 20 were in serious condition.

Ten of the hospitalised patients are intubated in the ICU.

The health ministry said that 66.7 per cent of the hospitalisations were unvaccinated.

Meanwhile, 115 new Covid-19 cases were detected in the north from 19,674 tests.

Since the pandemic outbreak, a total of 122,263 coronavirus cases were detected in the government-controlled areas, of whom 561 died from the virus.