Coronavirus: Five deaths, 2,200 new cases reported on Tuesday (updated)

Authorities on Tuesday announced that five more people have died of Covid-19, while testing tracked 2,200 new positives.

The latest fatalities were four men – aged 90, 89, 83 and 67 – and a woman aged 86. The 89-year-old man passed away on Monday, the other four on Tuesday.

That brings the Covid death toll to 689; the average age of the deceased is 76.1 years.

Of those who have died 434 were men and 255 women.

In hospitals, 257 people were being treated for Covid-19, of whom 89 are in a serious condition. Of those classified as serious, 38 were intubated, four in ICU but not on a ventilator, and 47 in high-dependency units.

In addition, 17 post-Covid patients continue to be intubated in ICU.

The health ministry reported that 69.65 per cent of those in hospital did not have a vaccination record.

The day’s 104,965 tests detected 2,200 positives – a positivity rate of 2.1 per cent.

A breakdown of the positives: 74 from 1,263 samples detected via contact tracing; six from 191 samples as part of doctors’ referrals; 54 from 2,607 samples taken at the airports; 336 from 4,034 samples via private initiative; 38 from 388 samples processed by laboratories at general hospitals; 1,050 from 45,251 samples (antigen rapid test) processed by private clinical labs and pharmacies; and 642 from 51,231 samples as part of the government’s free screening programme.

Notably, testing at care homes found five positives in Nicosia district, and one positive in Larnaca district.

The cumulative number of positives detected since March 2020 comes to 230,856.