Coronavirus: Five deaths and 2,322 new cases recorded (updated)

The health ministry on Tuesday announced five deaths and 2,322 new coronavirus infections.

The new cases were from 104,793 tests, giving a positivity rate of 2.22 per cent.

The five deaths concern one man and four women aged between 46 and 84 and bring the total of deaths from Covid to 830.

There are 157 coronavirus patients in state hospitals, 43 of them in serious condition of which 11 are intubated.

Of the hospitalised coronavirus cases, 70.07 per cent are not vaccinated.

Another 25 post-Covid patients continued to be on the ventilator in the ICU of state hospitals, the ministry added.

Three of the five deaths announced on Tuesday occurred on Monday. They concern a man aged 71 and two women aged 84 and 77. Another two women died on Tuesday, one aged 46 and the second aged 74.

Of the 104,793 tests carried out on Tuesday, 7,585 were PCR tests and 97,208 rapid tests. The 2,322 new infections detected bring the total since the start of the pandemic to 311,239.

The ministry said that following contact tracing 52 cases were detected from 549 PCR tests and 82 from 842 rapid tests. There were another 1,911 PCR tests from private initiative leading to 258 new cases and 41,397 rapid tests leading to 1,122 positive cases.

The health ministry’s programme accounted for 55,811 rapid tests that led to the detection of 819 positive tests. Of these 465 were from rapid test sites (16,295 tests).

Primary education reported 119 positive cases after 20,424 tests, secondary education 91 infections from 11,676 tests and test-to-stay 49 cases from 4,646 tests.

Another 995 tests were carried out at care homes where 10 new cases were detected and 933 tests at government services with three new infections reported.