Coronavirus: positivity rate of 0.97 per cent as 2,422 new cases recorded May 6-12

The health ministry on Friday announced another 24 coronavirus deaths recorded between March 2021 to May 11 2022, revising the total number of Covid mortalities to 1,051 since the pandemic outbreak in the island.

It added 2,422 new coronavirus cases were recorded from 250,791 tests carried out from May 6 to 12, a positivity rate of 0.97 per cent.

The announcement was part of the weekly briefing by the health ministry on the new coronavirus cases and fatalities recorded in Cyprus.

It showed that seven of the 24 newly announced deaths were recorded in the past week, which concerned people aged from 65 to 99.

Four of the deaths were recorded last year, which included a 49-year-old man, while the remaining 13 deaths were recorded before May 6 this year. Of those, the youngest coronavirus patient who died from the virus was 63 and the eldest 91.

Meanwhile, 45 coronavirus patients are being treated in state hospitals, of whom six are in serious condition, including two who are intubated.

Over 62 per cent of the hospitalised patients had received an anti-coronavirus vaccine, the health ministry’s data showed.

Furthermore, another 15 patients who stopped being infectious continued to be intubated due to Covid-19.

The ministry’s data showed the new cases were detected from 9,939 PCR and 240,852 rapid tests.

Of them, 165 PCR tests were carried out for contact tracing purposes during which five positives were found.

Most tests, 104,876, were carried out by private initiative from which 1,545 of the new cases were found.

Following 62,263 tests as part of the free testing provided by the health ministry 692 people tested positive. These included 67 cases traced in schools and 32 detected in care homes.