Coronavirus: Two deaths, 274 new PCR positive cases announced on Friday (updated)

Two people have died and 274 people have tested positive for coronavirus after 5,002 PCR tests, the health ministry said on Friday.

Both the deceased are men, aged 74 and 70, with underlying health problems. The 74 year old died at Famagusta General Hospital where he had been taken from Ekali rehabilitation centre in Limassol and the 70 year old was being treated in the ICU of Nicosia General.

This brings the total number of deaths attributed to Covid-19 to 43 – 27 men and 16 women, with an average age of 75.

The ministry said that a total of 12,077 tests were carried out of which 5,022 using the PCR method.

A total of 274 positive cases were detected from the PCR tests, 51 of them from 659 tests after tracing of previously confirmed cases. There were 65 positive results from 1317 tests from private initiative, 21 from 400 tests from hospital labs and 38 from 126 tests from referrals from personal doctors.

A programme underway in Limassol for workers exempted from travel ban led to seven positive cases from 980 tests, while there were 394 tests under the same programme in Paphos with six positive cases and two positive cases after 525 tests in Nicosia.

Moreover, 21 positive cases were detected from 132 tests at care homes for the elderly of which 15 were from Panayia home in Limassol and six from the Eoka rehabilitation facility.

Another 11 positive cases were detected after 126 tests at migrant facilities and one after one test among footballers.

Finally, 51 of the cases were verifications of positive results from rapid antigen tests of previous days.

There were no positive cases from 31 tests at schools, 225 tests among arriving passengers and 106 tests among Kato Pyrgos residents.

Friday’s results bring the total of positive cases since the start of the outbreak to 8253.

A total of 7055 antigen rapid tests were also carried out with 114 positive results which are subject to verification by PCR test. Of these two were in Paphos, 19 in Limassol, 41 in Larnaca and 52 in Nicosia.

There are currently 61 coronavirus patients at Famagusta General, six of them in the high dependency unit. There are nine patients at Nicosia General ICU, four of them off the ventilator. Another 12 patients are at Nicosia General’s Covid-19 ward and seven are at Limassol General.

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