The health ministry on Friday announced three deaths from Covid-19 while 2,192 more people tested positive after 106,444 tests, a positivity rate of 2.06 per cent.

All three deaths were from previous days and bring the total since the start of the pandemic to 703 with an average age of 76. They involve a woman aged 86 who died on Wednesday, a man aged 85 who died on Thursday and a 73-year-old man who died on January 9, all at Limassol hospital

There are a total of 242 Covid-19 patients in state hospitals, of whom 84 in serious condition. Thirty-three are intubated, five in an ICU but not on a ventilator and the remaining 46 in an increased care unit. Of the hospitalised patients, 70.67 per cent do not have a vaccination history. And 18 post-Covid patients remain intubated in serious condition in an ICU, the ministry added.

The 2,192 new cases announced on Friday bring the total so far to 232,161.

Of these 53 were detected from 553 tests among contacts of confirmed cases, 23 from 1855 tests among arriving passengers at Larnaca and Paphos airports and 323 from 3768 tests carried out by private initiative.

Of the 324 samples tested at the labs of the general hospitals there were 33 infections while 1,176 were detected after 50,564 rapid tests at private labs and pharmacies.

And 49,323 rapid tests were carried out under the health ministry’s programme resulting in 585 positive cases. Of these 90 were in primary schools and 35 in secondary schools. Finally, three cases were detected after 72 tests following referrals from personal doctors and checks of special groups through the public health centres.

Results from the ministry’s rapid testing programme:

District Number of tests Number of cases
Nicosia 9,198 173
Limassol 3,878 82
Larnaca 2,685 59
Paphos 1,792 38
Famagusta 685 11
Care homes Nicosia 339 8
Limassol 286 1
Larnaca 131 4
Famagusta 33 0
Primary

schools

 Nicosia 8,601 26
Limassol 5,715 36
Larnaca 3,435 11
Paphos 2739 15
Famagusta 1170 2
Secondary

schools

 Nicosia 3,247 9
Limassol 2,019 14
Larnaca 1,197 6
Paphos 530 2
Famagusta 536 4
Closed facilities 236 11
Contact tracing 871 73