Cyprus struggles as daily cases keep rising

Cyprus continues to struggle to bring the coronavirus under control as the number of daily cases keep on rising, according to data released on Friday, pushing the island’s 14-day cumulative rate to 749.5 per 100.000, up from 621.1 last week and 548.5 two weeks ago.

The Health Ministry’s latest epidemiological report for the period 31 March to 13 April, showed Cyprus is still marked a ‘dark red’ zone, as its notification rate exceeds the median 500 set by the European Centre for Disease Control.

The report recorded an overall positivity rate for the island of 1.36%, an indication, said the ministry, of the growth dynamic of the pandemic in Cyprus.

Rapid testing schemes carried out by the ministry this week revealed an increase in most districts.

Compared to last week’s report, Nicosia’s positivity rate went from 0.6% to 0.7%, Limassol remained at 0.9%, Larnaca’s rose from 0.8% to 1.1%, Paphos remained at 0.6% and Famagusta’s positivity rate went up from 0.6% to 0.8%.

Although Limassol’s positivity rate remains steady, the coastal town once again reported the highest notification rate during the past fortnight.

Specifically, Limassol’s cases per 100,000 were 934.4 (up from 899), Larnaca’s 773 (up from 555), Nicosia’s 693 (up from 524), Paphos at 478 (up from 359) and Famagusta 445 (up from 353).

As regards actual cases reported, Nicosia accounted for 36.1% (2,401) of all cases identified during the past two weeks, ahead of Limassol’s 34.9% (2,320 cases).

In a note accompanying its report, the health ministry said that cases among those aged 70 and older are significantly lower than the younger groups, attributing the fact to its vaccination rollout.

The ministry said that those aged 80 and above had an infection rate of 232.8/100,000, the lowest of all age groups.

Highest rate among 20-59s

The highest rate was among the 20 to 59-year-olds which had a rate of 878.8 per 100,000 – the highest among all age groups.

Those aged up to 19 years old had a notification rate of 742.8 / 100,000, the 60 to 70 year old group had a rate of 587.7 / 100,000, and the 70-79 years 277.1 / 100,000.

From March 31 to April 13, 6,656 cases were identified through a very high number of tests – 69,096 PCR tests and 672,155 rapid tests.

The median age of people testing positive was 34.

As of April 15, 244 people were in hospital, 57.4% of whom were men.

The percentage of men in ICUs was even higher at 66.7%, consistent with the gender disparity in terms of deaths. Out of 282 Covid-19 deaths reported by April 15, men accounted for 65.6% (n=185).

In total, 5.4% of people who tested positive for Covid-19 received hospital treatment with the median age being 63.

Of those hospitalised, 10.3% were admitted to an ICU, with an average age of 68.

By district, Limassol accounts for the majority of COVID19 deaths at 108 (38.3%), followed by Nicosia with 93 (33%), Larnaca with 48 (17%), 19 in Paphos (6.7%) and 11 in Famagusta district (3.9%).

The official case fatality rate is 0.6%, also described as 31.8 per 100,000.

Six people died of COVID-19 and 690 people were infected with coronavirus on Thursday, pushing the number of deaths to 283, while Cyprus has reported a total of 53,944 COVID-19 cases.