Coronavirus: Three deaths, 292 new cases (Updated)

The health ministry on Wednesday announced three deaths and 292 new cases of coronavirus.

The deaths were two men, aged 62 and 84, and an 83-year-old woman. They all had underlying health problems but died of the virus.

One hundred and ninety-three cases were detected out of 2,924 PCR tests. A further 99 were PCR verifications of rapid rests carried out in previous days.

The 83-year-old woman was being treated at Limassol general hospital while the 62-year-old man was in the Nicosia general hospital’s ICU.

The second male had been admitted to Famagusta covid hospital after contracting the virus at a care home in Limassol.

The number of deaths with covid as the cause has reached 52 – 35 of them men – with the average age being 75.

An additional 124 people were being treated in hospitals: 64 at Famagusta with four in the high dependency unit, 24 at Nicosia general hospital with 14 in the ICU, two off the ventilator, 24 in Limassol, five at Athalassa psychiatric hospital, and seven at Makarios children’s hospital.

The number of cases since March has reached 11,175.

Of the 193 cases, 88 concerned contacts of previously confirmed cases, detected after 564 tests.

A further 1,142 tests carried out by private laboratories detected 59 cases and 344 samples tested by state hospital labs gave 27 cases.

Two other cases were found among 249 people referred by GPs.

One case was detected as part of the programme testing people who work in Limassol and Paphos and four cases were detected among 144 samples taken from schools.

Twelve more cases were found after 16 tests carried out at a migrant reception centre.

Health authorities also carried out 6,060 rapid antigen tests, which yielded 108 positive results. These still have to be verified by PCR tests.

Nine cases were detected in the north, three concerning travellers, from 1,384 tests. The number of cases in the north has reached 1,138.