Coronavirus: Four deaths, 3,374 new cases (Updated)

The health ministry on Monday announced four more coronavirus deaths, including two people in their 40s, as 3,374 new infections were recorded.

The deaths concerned a man, aged 40 and a woman aged 89 who died on Sunday, and a woman aged 47 and a man aged 79 who died on Monday, the ministry said.

There are 233 in hospital with the virus of whom 63 are in serious condition. Of them, 29 are intubated, three are in the ICU without a ventilator and 31 are treated in the high dependency unit.

Another 19 post-Covid patients continue to be intubated in ICUs. The ministry said 72.42 per cent of those in hospital with the virus are unvaccinated.

According to the announcement, the new cases were detected from 139,885 PCR and rapid tests, a positivity rate of 2.41 per cent.

Of them, 132,415 concerned rapid tests, from where 2,956 positives were traced. The remaining 418 cases were detected from 7,470 PCR samples.

Most cases were detected following a private initiative test with 1,940 detected after 67,891 rapid tests, and 276 from PCR tests.

Another 1,016 cases were recorded after 64,524 rapid tests carried out through the health ministry’s programmes. These included 27 new cases in nursing homes and 356 cases in primary, secondary and special schools.

Meanwhile, 32 people tested positive after 225 PCR tests carried out for contact tracing purposes and 110 who tested positive after 1,515 rapid tests.

The north announced five deaths and 432 new cases after 16,601 tests.