No deaths, but 434 new cases of Covid-19 were announced on Wednesday out of 61,424 PCR and rapid tests, a positivity rate of 0.71 per cent.

There are 117 in hospital with the virus, of whom 39 are in serious condition. Of those in hospital, 58.12 per cent are not vaccinated.

Of Wednesday’s 61,424 tests, PCR totalled 4,508 and rapid tests accounted for 56,916.

The PCR tests identified the following: 69 infections from 903 contact tracing tests, two from 1,110 airport tests, 67 from 1,964 tests taken privately and two from 280 hospital tests.

The 29,445 rapid tests taken privately – typically amongst the unvaccinated, who are not eligible for free tests – identified 177 infections.

The health ministry’s screening programme for select groups carried out 27,471 rapid tests which uncovered 116 infections.

Notably, no infections were identified at care homes while nine were uncovered throughout the checks in primary schools, while 23 infections were reported at secondary schools.