Coronavirus: Seven deaths, 1,826 people test positive on Friday (Updated)

The health ministry on Friday announced 1,826 new coronavirus infections which resulted from 113,253 tests, a positivity rate of 1.61 per cent.

Earlier the health ministry had announced seven additional coronavirus related deaths, spanning from Wednesday to Friday, which raised the total number of Covid fatalities to 848.

The latest deaths were four men, two of whom, aged 75 and 88 died on Thursday, another aged 54 who had died on Wednesday and an 88-year-old man who died on Friday, as well as three women. Two of the women, aged 78 and 94, died on Friday and another 92-year-old woman died on Thursday from the virus, the ministry reported.

According to the daily briefing, there were 155 people with the virus in state hospitals, of whom 34 were in serious condition, including 13 who were intubated. Some 60 per cent are unvaccinated.

Another 24 patients who stopped being infected were still intubated due to the virus in ICUs, it added.

According to the ministry, some 5.6 per cent of the tests were PCR and the rest were rapid tests.

Of the 6.317 PCR tests, 266 cases were detected, while a total of 1,560 infections were traced from 106.936 rapid antigen tests.

Most cases, 949, were detected after 48,604 rapid tests carried out privately, while another 611 were detected from 58,332 tests as part of the health ministry’s free testing programmes, including testing at schools and nursing homes.

A total of 176 infections were detected after 1,604 PCR tests, while another 51 were detected after 688 rapid tests and 38 after 385 PCR tests carried out for contact tracing purposes, the announcement added.

The new cases included 355 infections in schools and 19 cases in nursing homes.

Authorities in the northern part of the island announced 400 new coronavirus cases on Friday, after 17,694 tests, raising the total of cases detected to 67,072 since the pandemic outbreak. In total, 190 people died from the virus in the north.