Coronavirus: No deaths, 538 people test positive on Thursday (Updated)

Health authorities on Thursday announced no new fatalities from Covid-19, while 538 more people tested positive for the coronavirus.

The Covid death toll since March 2020 remains at 598, with the average of the deceased at 75.8 years.

Meanwhile the number of people hospitalised dropped slightly to 112, of whom 46 were in a serious condition. Of the 46, 18 were intubated, three in ICU but off the ventilator, and 25 in high-dependency units.

In addition, three post-Covid patients continued to be intubated in ICU.

The health ministry reported that 66.08 per cent of those hospitalised did not have a record of vaccination.

The 538 positives came from 88,694 tests (of which 8,029 done with PCR), representing a positivity rate of 0.61 per cent.

A breakdown of the latest positives: 55 from 682 samples via contact tracing; 14 from 4,605 samples taken at the airports; 75 from 2,384 samples taken by private initiative; 13 from 288 samples processed at the microbiology labs in general hospitals; 257 from 49,688 samples (antigen rapid tests) processed by private clinical labs and pharmacies; and 124 from 30,977 samples as part of the government’s free screening programme.

From among the free screening programme, four positives were tracked at nursing homes in Nicosia district. In primary schools, 8270 tests detected 24 positives, and in secondary schools 12,308 tests found 21 positives.

The cumulative total of positives comes to 135,503.