The death toll from Covid-19 spiked in Cyprus in December with the death of 68 people attributed to the disease, while another 8 people who had contracted the coronavirus also died this month although Covid-19 is not reported as the final cause of death. The number of people who died in December compared to November is up by 117%. Nicosia and Limassol are the two more heavily hit districts with 34 and 22 deaths attributed to the disease respectively this month.

According to data released by the Ministry of Health on Wednesday from March until December 29, 2020 a total of 144 deaths of people who were diagnosed to have contracted Covid-19 have been recorded. Out of that, 66% or 95 were men while 34% or 49 were women.

Covid-19 was the cause of death for 117, or 81% of total deaths of people with the disease. Out of that 65% or 76 were men while 35% or 41 were women.

According to the official data deaths have been occurring more frequently in the age group between 80 – 84 people which accounts for 28% of the total number of deaths or 41 people.

In December, the report says, the greatest number of deaths of people who contracted Covid-19 has been recorded since the start of the pandemic, with the percentage reaching 53% of total deaths.

The number of deaths in December is 117% greater than the number of deaths for the entire month of November (35, 24%).

The highest number of deaths of people who contracted the virus was recorded in week 49 (21 deaths) of this year which is 15% of the total number of deaths.

At the same time, 36 people who died were elderly homes residents, who passed away at a state hospital, while 92% of deaths or 132 took place in state hospital.

Data on the geographical provenance of the deceased show that 62 out of 76 deaths this December of people who had contracted the virus were permanent residents of Nicosia (37) and Limassol (25). Deaths attributed to Covid-19 were 34 in Nicosia and 22 in Limassol. The same month saw 9 people lose their life from Larnaca district, 2 from Famagusta district and 1 from Pafos district.

In total 43 people who died were from Nicosia, 41 from Limassol, 19 from Larnaca, 9 from Pafos and 5 from Famagusta.

The report also refers to Euro MOMO hub, a European monitoring of excess mortality for public health action which monitors mortality in as many European countries as possible, using a standardised approach to ensure that signals are comparable between countries.

Cyprus, it says, “does not present with excessive mortality during the pandemic up until and including the 51st week of mortality data analysis.”