Three people have died from Covid in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Monday, as 120 new infections were detected from 27,248 tests, a positivity rate of 0.44 per cent.

The number of deaths attributed to Covid climbed to 202 since last March while the number of cases reached 30,996.

According to a ministry statement, 120 people were being treated in hospital, 43 in serious or critical condition.

The three deaths concerned two men, aged 70 and 80, and a woman, 62. All three had underlying health issues, the ministry said.

Of the dead, 136 were men while the average age has dropped slightly to 79.

The ministry said 43 of the 129 patients were either treated in ICUs or high dependency units.

Twenty-three were intubated while seven patients in ICUs were not intubated. Thirteen were in high dependency units.

Of the 120 new cases, 31 concerned contacts of previously confirmed infections, detected from 238 samples. Three cases out of 795 samples concerned travellers, and four were detected among 362 samples tested in private laboratories.

Six more were among 240 samples tested by state hospital labs while one was among 219 referred by GPs.

Seventy-five infections were detected in 25,394 samples tested with antigen tests.

In the north, Turkish Cypriots announced 46 new cases from 3,157 tests.

Eight were contacts of previously confirmed cases, 35 were locally acquired infections, and three were travellers.

The total number of cases in the north reached 2,371 while 14 people have lost their lives from the virus.