No new Covid-19 deaths but 176 new cases were announced by the health ministry on Tuesday night.

With a positivity rate of 0.63 per cent, the 176 new cases are a significant uptick compared to previous days and weeks where daily cases have been relatively stable at 100-120.

There are currently 78 Covid-19 patients of whom 25 are in serious condition. Of the 25, eleven are intubated and five are in ICUs without respirators while nine are in a high dependency unit.

As for the cases, the 176 positives were identified via 27,762 tests of which 2,085 were PCR tests.

The breakdown is as follows: 24,897 rapid tests picked up 83 positives, while the remaining PCR tests identified 53 positives from the contact tracing programme (237 tests), 27 were found via private testing (859 tests), eight were from 421 tests done at general hospitals’ labs, two from 208 tests on travellers at the airports and just one positive from 270 tests done after being referred by their GPs.

Finally, two positives were identified after 690 rapid tests were taken privately.

Limassol’s positivity rate has almost reached one per cent, 0.96 per cent, and remains by far the highest among all the districts.

Nicosia was the second highest but far lower with a rate of 0.13 per cent, followed by Larnaca at 0.12 per cent, Paphos at 0.05 per cent and finally Famagusta with no positives recorded at all out of 980 tests.