The health ministry announced 354 new coronavirus infections on Monday out of 66,696 PCR and rapid tests, a positivity rate of 0.53 per cent.

No deaths were reported.

There are 88 people in hospital with the virus, 39 of them in serious condition. Of the 39 patients, 13 are intubated, one is in the ICU without a ventilator and 25 in the High Dependency Unit.

In addition, three post-Covid patients who are no longer infectious remain intubated in ICU.

Among all patients, 67.05 per cent have not been vaccinated against Covid.

Of the 66,696 tests, 4,219 were PCR and 62,477 rapid tests.

The majority, 219 of the 354 cases came from 40,599 rapid tests performed at private labs and pharmacies, with 69 more found out of 21,878 tests performed at health ministry testing sites.

Thirty-six cases came from 1,518 samples taken through private initiative, while 405 samples taken through contacts of already confirmed cases turned up 27 positives.

In addition, 1,899 samples were taken at airports with three positives.

No positives were found among 234 samples processed by hospital labs and 163 samples taken through GP referrals.

The total number of positives to date is 128,038.

the death toll remains 588, of whom 376 were men and 212 women.