Coronavirus: 245 new cases announced on Saturday (Updated)

The health ministry on Saturday announced 245 new coronavirus infections after 7,235 PCR tests.

Seventy-nine additional cases were detected through 6,208 rapid antigen tests but they need to be confirmed with PCR.

The number of cases detected since March has reached 8,498.

The ministry said 63 people are being treated at the covid-19 reference hospital in Famagusta, with five in the high dependency unit.

Nine patients are in the Nicosia general hospital ICU, three off the ventilator. Eleven other patients are being treated in a separate ward. Seven patients are receiving treatment at Limassol general hospital while a baby has been admitted at Makarios children’s hospital.

Of the 245 cases, 36 concern antigen tests conducted in the previous days that were confirmed through PCR.

Forty-five cases are contacts of previously confirmed cases detected from 414 samples.

Out of 2,414 tests carried out by private laboratories, 101 cases were detected while 14 were reported by state hospital labs.

Eleven cases were detected from 396 samples tested after GP referrals.

Eighteen cases were detected in Limassol as part of the programme to test workers travelling to and from Paphos and Limassol, which are under partial lockdown; two were reported in Paphos from 191 tests and four in Nicosia out of 864 samples. Larnaca reported two cases from 302 tests and Famagusta one from 270.

Two cases were detected from 10 samples tested as part of a screening programme in nursing homes and other facilities and three from 393 samples taken from migrant centres.

Five cases were reported among 174 samples taken from schools and one from 573 tested travellers.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.