Cyprus health authorities on Friday announced 5,244 new Covid cases, bringing the total number of infections since the outbreak of the pandemic to 197,401 while deaths remained at 650 as no fatalities were recorded for a second consecutive day.
 
Furthermore, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of Health, total hospitalisaions declined to 230 from 235 yesterday, while 81 are treated in serious conditions in ICUs and ACUs, compared with 73 yesterday.
 
A total of 139,334 tests were carried out today, with the daily positivity rate amounting to 3.76%% down from 4.89% yesterday.
 
Total deaths since the beginning of the pandemic remained at 650, of whom 411 or 63.2% male and 239 or 36.8% female with a median age of 76 years.
 
Furthermore, patients receiving treatment in public hospitals amounted to 230, of whom 81 are being treated in serious condition in ACUs and ICUs. Of the patients in serious condition, 28 are intubated in ICUs, 5 are in ICU but not connected to a ventilator and 48 patients are in ACUs.
 
Data show that 77.83% of the patients have no vaccination history, while 18 post-COVID patients who are no longer infectious are intubated in serious condition in ICUs.
 
 According to the Ministry, the 5,244 new COVID infections were detected following 139,334 tests, of which 13,007 were PCR tests and 126,327 rapid antigen tests.
 
A total of 138 cases were detected following 1,030 samples taken in the context of contact tracing, 55 new cases were diagnosed after 4,036 tests done at the airports, 748 new infections were detected after 7,220 tests carried out privately, 62 new cases were diagnosed after 615 samples tested at General Hospitals` Microbiology Labs, 3,011 new cases were detected after 88,689 rapid tests carried out in private labs and pharmacies, 1,222 new infections were diagnosed after 37,638 tests carried out in the context of the Ministry of Health rapid test programme, 7 new infections were diagnosed after 104 samples taken in the context of GP referrals, while 1 new cases was detected after 2 samples taken from closed structures.