Cyprus Health Ministry on Friday announced 2 deaths from COVID and 5,048 new cases, breaking yet another record as cases on the island are on rise the past few days. The positivity rate is now at 2.98% . Total deaths rose to 638 and of cases to 166,827.

Moreover the Ministry announced that  180 patients are in hospitals, 79 of whom are in serious condition. Figures show that 85.48%  of the patients are unvaccinated.

The Ministry also said that 18 post-COVID patients who are no longer infectious are intubated in an ICU.

Today`s cases were detected from a total of 169,476 tests.

The deceased are a male 76 years old who passed away at the ICU of Nicosia General Hospital and a female 78 years of age who died at the Reference Hospital in Famagusta.

Of all the deaths 405 are male (63,5%) and 233 are female (36,5%) and the median aged is 76 years.

Of today`s tests, 14,971 were PCR and 154,505 were rapid and the  5,048 cases were diagnosed as follows: 105 from 6,186 tests at airports, 1352 from 7,816 tests done on private initiative, 25 from 480 tests done at microbiology labs of General Hospitals,
2,815 from 121,614 tests done at private labs and pharmacies and 751 from 32,891 rapid tests done via the Health Ministry`s free testing program. Two tests done following a GP referral and no cases were detected. No positive cases were detected among 487 tests done in the framework of contact tracing.

Two cases were reported in nursing homes in Limassol following rapid tests done by the Ministry. Another two were detected in tests carried out in closed structures.