Coronavirus: two deaths, 704 new cases announced on Wednesday (updated)

Two more people have died from Covid-19, as 704 new cases of the virus were detected from 17,451 tests, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

The number of people who died from the virus since March has now reached 119. The number of cases detected so far is 22,019.

The ministry said 159 people were being treated in hospital, 41 in critical condition.

The latest deaths concern two men, one 67-year-old with underlying health problems who was being treated in the Nicosia general hospital ICU and a 90-year-old with an underlying condition.

Of the 119 fatalities so far, 78, or 66 per cent, were men. The average age is 80.

The ministry said 159 people were being treated in state hospitals with 41 in critical condition – 22 were intubated, three were in ICUs but not on a ventilator, and 16 in a high dependency unit.

Of the 17,451 tests, 3,620 were PCR and the rest rapid antigen tests.

The ministry said 194 new cases were detected from 824 samples collected as part of contact tracing while 112 were reported by private laboratories from 1,434 tests.

Seven cases were found at the island’s airports after 467 tests.

State hospital labs reported 24 cases after 357 tests and three more from 464 samples collected from people who arrived from the UK and were placed in quarantine.

According to the ministry, 364 cases were detected through 13,831 antigen tests.

Most cases were detected in Nicosia, which however, had the highest number of antigen tests – 128 and 4,240, respectively. It was followed by Limassol with 79 cases from 1,993 tests, Larnaca, 102 from 2,700, Paphos, 17 from 451, and Famagusta, 17 from 555 tests.

Four cases were detected in care homes – three in Nicosia and one in Limassol — from 1,317 tests, eight in the public sector from 2,149, and nine in the National Guard from 426 tests.