Coronavirus: Two deaths, 428 people test positive on Saturday (Updated)

The health ministry announced that two people had died from Covid-19 and that 428 had tested positive from 78,007 PCR and rapid tests, a positivity rate of 0.55 per cent.

The deaths concerned a woman aged 80 and a man aged 34.No details as to patients’ underlying health conditions or vaccination status are provided.

The two deaths bring the toll since March 2020 to 601, of which 386 were men and 215 were women with an average age of 75.6 years.

There are 115 people in hospitals of whom 43 are in serious condition. Of these, 17 are intubated.

The ministry said that the percentage of unvaccinated patients was 69.5 per cent.

Of the 78,007 tests on Saturday, 9,499 were PCR and 68,508 rapid tests yielding 428 positives as follows:

• 18 from 4,492 samples taken at airports
• 98 from 4,777 samples taken through private initiative.
• 8 from 226 tests at hospital labs 
• 204 from 50,420 people tested at private labs and pharmacies 
• 100 from 18,088 samples taken under the health ministry’s free testing for special categories of citizen

The latter 100 are broken down as follows: