Coronavirus: three deaths, 174 people test positive on Thursday (Updated)

Health authorities on Thursday announced three more deaths attributed to Covid-19, while testing tracked 174 positives.

The decedents were a man aged 99 and a woman aged 74 who passed away on Wednesday at Limassol general hospital; and a 64-year-old man who passed away on Thursday at Nicosia general’s ICU unit.

The health ministry no longer discloses decedents’ vaccination status or whether they had underlying conditions.

The death toll since March 2020 now stands at 526 people, of whom 64 per cent are men. The average age of death is 76.4 years.

Meanwhile the number of hospitalised for Covid-19 continued declining – 119 patients were being treated, of whom 37 said to be in a serious condition. Of the 37, 16 were intubated, two in ICU but not on a ventilator, and 19 in high-dependency units.

Also, twelve post-Covid patients (no longer infectious) continue to be intubated in a serious condition.

The ministry said 80.68 per cent of those hospitalised did not have a record of vaccination.

The 174 positives came from 56,956 tests, of which 4,796 done with PCR. The positivity rate worked out to 0.31 per cent.

That brings the total number of positives since the outbreak began last year to 117,533.

A breakdown of the positives: 17 from 181 samples via contact tracing; eight from 2,353 samples taken at the airports; 30 from 2,041 samples by private initiative; eight from 148 samples processed by the microbiology laboratories of general hospitals; 82 from 31,342 samples processed by private clinical labs and pharmacies; and 29 from 20,818 samples as part of the government testing programme.

Four of the positives were detected in nursing homes in the Famagusta district.