Four more deaths and a new record of 907 coronavirus cases were detected on Tuesday, the health ministry said.
Two men aged 82 and 84 and two women aged 83 and 88 died from Covid-19 although all four of them had underlying health conditions.
This brings the number of people who have died from coronavirus to 117; 76 men and 41 women. The average age is 80 years.
The 907 new cases were from a total of 18,070 PCR tests and rapid antigen tests and bring to 21,315 the total number of cases on the island so far.
Tuesday’s cases concern 369 positive antigen rapid tests from a total of 13,805.
As regards PCR tests, 153 people were found positive during contact tracing, while 343 cases concerned people who tested privately.
Another 10 cases were among tests given at the airports to people who arrived from abroad. Twenty-seven cases were from samples processed in state labs and another five were people who were referred for testing by their family physicians (GPs) or tests among special groups.
Among the positive rapid tests, were 29 cases detected in nursing homes, while another 13 are health professionals in state and private hospitals. Fifteen cases concern National Guardsmen.
Famagusta was the district with the most cases by proportion of rapid tests with 5.97 per cent of tests given – 27 out of 452 – positive. In the Limassol district, 73 positive cases were detected among 1,686 tests given, 4.33 per cent.
In total 85 cases were found in the Larnaca district out of 1,992 rapid tests given (4.27 per cent), while in Nicosia 108 positive cases were found among 3,860 tests (2.8 per cent).
In the Paphos district, 2.57 per cent of the people tested were found positive (19 out of 738).
The number of hospital patients remains high as 154 people are being treated, 42 of whom are in serious condition. Twenty of these 42 are intubated.
Earlier in the day the health minister issued a decree with further restrictions as regards house gatherings, banning people from being in any other house than their own.
Justifying the measure, which will be in effect between 6pm Tuesday and January 10, the decree said this decision was taken “due to the urgent need arising from the epidemiological data for the protection of public health.”
Despite the measures already taken, it said, 2,690 coronavirus cases were recorded between December 21 and 28, while the average number of patients in hospital is increasing daily and ranges between 140 and 155 per day.
It also said that during the same period, there have been 18 deaths with Covid-19 being the final cause while nine out of 10 cases recorded are local infections. Furthermore, the positivity percentage of laboratory tests is close to 5per cent, which is above the safety limit of 4 per cent set by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), it said.
The move came as a 54-year-old man who tested positive for coronavirus was caught serving customers in his hairdressing salon in the Nicosia district, despite the fact he was supposed to be self-isolating, it emerged on Tuesday.
The man, who was found positive on Saturday, was caught serving customers in his salon by police.
Inside the salon were three other people, who were urged to get tested and self-isolate. The 54-year-old, who was asked to return to his house, was charged and is set to appear before court at a later stage.
