The health ministry announced 2,546 new cases of Covid-19 and three deaths on Tuesday.

The deaths were two women aged 85 and 86 who passed away at Paphos and Famagusta hospitals respectively, and a man aged 88, who passed away at Limassol hospital.

This brings the total death toll to 716, of whom 448 were men and 268 women.

There are 223 people being treated for coronavirus in hospitals, 71 of whom are in serious condition. Of the 71 patients, 27 are intubated, five are in the ICU without a ventilator and 39 in a High Dependency Unit.

Of all patients, 73.43 per cent are not vaccinated against Covid.

Twenty-five post-Covid patients who are no longer infectious are still intubated in the ICU.

A total of 99,308 PCR and rapid tests were carried out on Tuesday, giving a positivity rate of 2.56 per cent.

Of the 99,308 tests, 6,465 were PCR and 92,843 rapid tests.

The majority, 1,186 of the 2,546 cases, came from 41,718 rapid tests performed at private labs and pharmacies, with 830 more found out of 51,125 tests performed at health ministry testing sites.

A total of 341 cases came from 3,175 samples taken through private initiative, while 543 samples taken through contacts of already confirmed cases turned up 105 positives.

Nineteen cases were found among 324 samples processed by hospital labs while 192 samples taken through GP referrals yielded no positives.

In addition, 2,286 samples were taken at airports with 70 positives.

The total number of positives to date is 241,319.

Meanwhile, the north reported two deaths and 639 new cases, found from 22,025 tests performed in the last 24 hours.

The ‘health ministry’ reported that 311 cases were detected in Nicosia, 114 in Kyrenia, 86 in Famagusta, 68 In Morphou, 31 in Trikomo and 29 in Lefka.

So far, the north has reported 51,677 cases and 163 deaths.