Coronavirus: one death, 235 people test positive on Thursday (Updated)

The health ministry on Thursday announced one death attributed to Covid-19, as testing yielded 235 new positives and a positivity rate of 0.45 per cent.

The decedent was a woman aged 83 who passed away at Larnaca general hospital on Thursday. The Covid death toll now stands at 508, with an average age of 76.5 years among the deceased.

Authorities no longer disclose a deceased’s vaccination status or whether they had underlying conditions.

Meantime 134 were being treated for Covid-19 in hospitals, of whom 45 in a serious condition. Of the 45 patients described as in a serious condition, 19 were intubated, four in ICU but without a ventilator, and 22 in high-dependency units.

The ministry said that the percentage of unvaccinated patients was 79.1 per cent.

Seventeen post-Covid patients (no longer infectious) continued to be intubated in ICUs.

Overall 52,758 tests were carried out, of which 4,910 done using the PCR method.

A breakdown of the 235 latest positives: 18 from 121 samples through contact tracing; nine from 2,428 samples taken at the airports; 42 from 2,121 samples via private initiative; six from 194 samples processed at the microbiology labs of general hospitals; 115 from 36,201 samples processed at private clinical labs and pharmacies; and 45 from 11,647 samples as part of the government’s rapid test programme.

Two positives were detected from nursing homes in Nicosia and Larnaca districts.

To date, the cumulative number of positives in the Republic stands at 114,366. With 508 deaths, the crude case fatality rate works out to 0.44 per cent.