Coronavirus: Nine deaths, 3,786 new Covid cases seen in last week (updated)

Nine deaths, including that of a 59-year-old woman, and 3,786 new coronavirus cases were recorded over the last seven days, the health ministry announced on Friday.

The cases were detected form a total of 480,220 tests carried out between April 22 and 28, translating to a positivity rate of 2.64 per cent.

Meanwhile, the newly announced deaths, which increased the total fatalities to 1,015, were recorded from April 21 to April 27 according to the ministry’s data.

The report also showed the percentage of unvaccinated people hospitalised with the virus has dropped to 42.70 per cent. As of April 28, some 89 people were being treated for the virus in state hospitals, including 20 who are in serious condition.

Another 11 patients who stopped being infectious continue to be intubated in ICUs due to the virus.

The vast majority of new infections, 3,304, were detected after 130,599 rapid tests, of which 73,932 were caried out privately. The remaining 56,667 rapid tests were part of the health ministry’s free programmes.

Meanwhile, a total of 12,730 people carried out a PCR test during the same period, of which 482 were positive, a positivity rate of 3.79 per cent. Of them, 148 tests concerned contact tracing from where nine positives were found.

During the last seven days, 4,440 rapid tests were carried out in nursing homes, among which 56 people tested positive for the virus. No cases were found after 3,822 rapid tests in 24/7 facilities nor in special schools following 22 tests.

Rapid tests were also carried out in the national guard where one case was detected.

The health ministry, following the trend of other European countries, stopped announcing the daily coronavirus cases earlier this month and shifted to weekly updates since last Friday.