Coronavirus: 116 cases recorded on Sunday, 77 people in hospital (Update)

In total 116 coronavirus cases were recorded on Sunday, with the health ministry also announcing the highest number of patients with Covid-19 being treated in hospitals.

According to the health ministry, 116 new cases were detected among 2,803 lab tests.

The ministry said that the lower number of cases recorded compared to previous days was due to that most private labs were closed on Sunday.

Of the 2,803 lab tests, 1,173 concerned tests carried out at airports, which resulted in 11 cases. Therefore, the ministry said, the remaining 105 cases were the result of only 1,630 tests and involved people from the community.

As regards the 105 local cases, 69 of them were detected though contact tracing, 19 were people who tested privately, another nine cases were among samples processed by the labs of state hospitals and eight were people who were referred for testing by family physicians and as part of checks among special groups.

Seventy-seven people are being treated in hospitals; 61 at the Famagusta hospital, six of whom in the high dependency unit, another seven are intubated at the Nicosia general hospital and nine more at the same hospital’s Covid-19 ward.

The ministry said the Famagusta hospital’s high dependency unit has now reached its full capacity expressing concerns about the availability of hospital beds “considering that, based on epidemiological data, the number of patients is expected to increase in the coming days.”

Earlier on Sunday, the ministry called on members of the public who are close contacts of the 92 people working at Cypra slaughterhouse who were found positive to coronavirus on Saturday, to self-isolate and contact the tracing unit in order to get tested if they did not.

The total number of cases is now at 5,987.

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