Health authorities on Thursday announced one death from Covid-19, while the number of positives came close to the 1,000 mark and with the positivity rate clocking at 1.05 per cent.

The latest fatality was an 81-year-old man who died Wednesday at Nicosia general hospital’s ICU.

The Covid death toll now stands at 625; the average age of the deceased is 75.9 years.

Meanwhile hospitals were treating 162 patients, of whom 66 in a serious condition. Of the 66, 25 were intubated, four in ICU but not on a ventilator, and 37 in high-dependency units.

In addition, 13 post-Covid patients continued to be intubated in ICU.

The ministry reported that 77.78 per cent of the hospitalised did not have a record of vaccination.

Thursday’s 978 positives were tracked from 93,233 tests, of which 12,269 done with PCR.

A breakdown of the positives: 178 from 1,986 samples via contact tracing; 44 from 6,285 samples taken at the airports; 148 from 3,574 samples taken by private initiative; 20 from 381 samples processed by microbiology labs at general hospitals; 408 from 54,626 samples (antigen rapid test) processed by private clinical labs and pharmacies; and 180 from 26,338 samples (antigen rapid test) as part of the health ministry’s free screening programme.

Three of the positives came from nursing homes in Nicosia district. And 8,138 tests in secondary schools tracked 23 positives.

The cumulative total of positives since March 2020 stands at 148,663.