The health ministry announced five deaths and 116 new cases of Covid-19 on Thursday.

The deaths concerned four men aged 81,73, 86 and 71, and one woman aged 84. All had underlying conditions. All died in Nicosia hospital, three in ICU. This brings the total deaths to 208, of whom 140 were men and 68 women with an average age of 79.

There are 112 people in hospitals, 31 of whom are in serious condition. Of the 31 patients who are critical, 19 are intubated. A total of 28,405 tests were carried out by means of PCR and rapid tests with 116 new cases, a positivity rate of 0.41 per cent.

The total number of positives to date is 31,379.

Of the 28,405 tests 1,592 were PCR and 26,813 rapid tests. The bulk, 71 of the 116 positives came through the rapid testing while 26 came from 276 samples taken through contact tracing, 14 cases from 612 samples taken through private initiative, 4 cases from 305 samples processed by hospital labs, and one case from 109 samples taken through GP referrals.

In addition, 249 samples were taken at airports with no positives and also from 41 UK arrivals who were in quarantine, all of which were negative.

Eighty new cases were announced in the north on Thursday through 6,937 tests performed in the last 24 hours.
In a written statement, ‘health minister’ Ali Pilli said that one incident was detected at the airport, ten from contact tracing and 69 local infections.

Twenty one cases were detected in Nicosia, 49 in Kyrenia, 5 in Famagusta and 4 in Morphou.

The total number of cases in the north totals 2,584.