The health ministry announced three deaths from and 2,987 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday.

The new deaths were of two women aged 71 and 87, and a man aged 96, bringing the total death toll to 949.

There are 207 people being treated for coronavirus in hospitals, 30 of whom are in serious condition. Of the 30 patients, four are in the ICU without a ventilator, six are intubated, and 20 in a high dependency unit.

Of all patients, 56.04 per cent are not vaccinated against Covid.

Thirteen post-Covid patients who are no longer infectious are still intubated in the ICU.

A total of 84,718 PCR and rapid tests were carried out on Tuesday, giving a positivity rate of 3.53 per cent.

Of the 84,718 tests, 81,289 were rapid tests, with 2,700 cases found. The remaining 3,429 tests were PCR with 287 positives.

Most cases were detected through private initiative, with 1,779 detected from 31,476 rapid tests, and 162 from 1,107 PCR tests.

Another 921 cases were recorded after 49,813 rapid tests carried out through the health ministry’s testing programmes.

Meanwhile, 60 and 50 people tested positive after 567 rapid tests and 1,573 PCR tests respectively carried out for contact tracing purposes.

A total of 18,691 rapid tests were carried out in primary schools with 98 cases found, and 10,582 in secondary schools with 61 cases found.

Meanwhile, the test to stay programme turned up 51 positives from 4,258 tests.

Fifty-one more cases were detected from 1,171 samples taken from care homes, and three more from 483 tests in closed structures.

The total number of cases detected so far is 446,999.