Two deaths from coronavirus and 143 new cases were announced on Wednesday out of 46,367 PCR and rapid tests.

The deaths were two men, aged 57 and 68. The number of deaths is now at 566: 360 men and 206 women with an average age of 76.2 years.

There are 64 people in hospital with the virus, of whom 24 are in serious condition, including 11 who are intubated. In total 60 per cent of hospitalisations concern people who are not vaccinated.

Five of the new cases concern passengers at the Larnaca and Paphos airports.

Thirty-three were detected through contact tracing, 20 are people who got PCR tests privately, 41 people who got rapid tests privately and nine were among samples processed in state hospitals’ labs.

Another 35 were among the rapid tests carried out in all districts on behalf of the health ministry. Seven of these were detected during tests in secondary education: four in Limassol, two in Larnaca and one in Nicosia. Eight more were detected in the Nicosia district out of 2,371 tests, five in Limassol (786), six in Larnaca (607), four in Paphos (332) and five in the Famagusta district (158).

The positivity rate is at 0.31 per cent.

So far 122,852 Covid-19 cases have been recorded.