One death and 451 new Covid-19 cases were recorded on Friday, the health ministry said.

The death concerns a 47-year-old man. This brings the number of deaths from Covid-19 to 591: 378 men and 213 women with an average age of 76 years.

The new cases were among 75,518 PCR and rapid tests with a positivity rate of 0.6 per cent.

There are 116 patients with Covid-19 in hospital, 40 of whom in serious condition, including 16 who are intubated. In total 68.1 per cent of hospitalisations for Covid-19 concerned unvaccinated patients.

More than half of the new cases – 249 – concern people who got rapid tests privately.

Two of the new cases were passengers at the Larnaca and Paphos airports, while 62 were among samples collected through private initiative.

Ten were among samples collected by state hospitals’ labs and 128 were detected among rapid tests carried out in all districts on behalf of the health ministry. Ten of these cases were detected during testing in high schools: five in Nicosia, two in Paphos and one each in Limassol, Larnaca and Famagusta. Twelve cases were recorded in primary schools: four in Nicosia, three each in Limassol and Larnaca, and one each in Paphos and Famagusta. In addition, 65 cases were detected in the Nicosia district out of 5,338 tests, 18 in Limassol (1,325), 12 in Larnaca (1,044), eight in Paphos (639) and three in the Famagusta district (386).

So far 132,402 cases have been recorded.