Coronavirus: One death, 254 new cases, 35 from Nicosia care home (Updated)
An 82-year old man with pre-existing conditions has died, and another 254 people have tested positive for coronavirus after 6,431 PCR tests, the health ministry said on Wednesday.
The 254 cases include 46 people who had previously tested positive through rapid testing and whose results were verified by PCR. Two cases were not verified.
Alarmingly, the PCR tests also identified another outbreak at a care home, with 35 positive cases detected after 109 tests carried out at Climentio old people’s home in Ayios Antonios Nicosia. The tests were carried out after an employee at the home tested positive with a rapid test and a mobile unit was sent to care home to test all residents and staff. Most of the positive cases are elderly residents, the ministry said.
Care homes have proven particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus and more than 200 care home residents have tested positive so far this month.
The 82-year old man whose death was announced on Wednesday had been admitted to Limassol hospital after an outbreak at the care home in Kyperounta. The cause of death is attributed to Covid-19 and brings the total number of deaths from coronavirus in Cyprus to 47 with an average age of 75.
The ministry said that 5,555 rapid antigen tests were also carried out on Wednesday with 97 testing positive. These are still to be verified.
Regarding the PCR tests, the ministry said that 53 positive cases followed 688 tests among contacts of confirmed cases while 77 were detected after 2250 private initiative tests. There were 17 cases after 447 tests from hospital labs, three from 254 tests from referrals from personal doctors and 12 from Limassol district after 254 tests among workers who underwent the test in order to be exempted from the travel ban. One worker tested positive in Paphos after 126 tests with the same programme and two from Larnaca after 584 tests, again for the same programme. There were 1158 tests among workers in Nicosia so they can travel to Limassol and Paphos, with six testing positive.
Moreover, there were two positive cases among airline passengers after 202 tests as well as the 35 from the care home.
There were no positive cases from 174 cases at schools, 49 tests at migrant facilities, 91 in the Famagusta district for workers and 50 in Pyrgos Tyllirias.
The total number of cases since the start of the outbreak is now 9453.
As regards the rapid tests, the ministry said that the 97 positive results were detected as follows: Limassol 20, Larnaca 30, Famagusta 11, Nicosia 34 and National Guard two.
There are currently 107 Covid-19 patients in hospitals islandwide – 69 at Famagusta General of whom three in the high dependency unit, 27 at Nicosia general of whom 12 in the wards and 15 in the ICU (two not on the ventilator) and 16 at Limassol general’s Covid-19 ward. There are also two infants at Makarios Hospital.