Coronavirus: Five deaths, 484 more people test positive on Wednesday (Updated)

The health ministry announced the deaths of five people from Covid and 484 new infections on Wednesday after 54,249 PCR and rapid tests.

At the same time, 264 people were being treated in hospital with 92 in serious or critical condition.

The deaths concern two men, aged 75 and 91, and three women, aged 49, 67 and 96.

The number of deaths since the pandemic started in March last year has reached 452 — 294 men and 158 women. The average age is 77.1 years.

The number of recorded infections is 107,485.

Of the 92 patients in serious or critical condition, 51 were intubated, four were in the ICU without ventilation, and 37 in high dependency units. The ministry said 84.10 per cent of hospitalised Covid patients were not vaccinated.

The ministry said the positivity rate on Wednesday was 0.89 per cent.

Of the 484 new cases, 50 were close contacts of previously detected infections. They were detected among 384 samples.

Six cases were among 2,900 samples tested at the two airports and 81 were detected after 3,132 tests carried out privately.

State hospital labs reported two infections in 219 samples.

Private labs and pharmacies reported 223 cases after testing 32,094 samples using rapid antigen, and 122 cases in 15,429 samples were reported as part of the government’s screening programme, again using rapid antigen assays.

Meanwhile, the north announced 181 cases out of 16,484 tests. According to reports, two cases have recently come in contact with Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar’s wife, who is now self-isolating.

The total number of coronavirus cases recorded so far in the north amounts to 12,985.