Coronavirus death toll climbs, 33 new cases

Cyprus’ coronavirus fatalities continued this week’s climb after an 89-year-old woman, who was being treated for coronavirus at the Famagusta general hospital, succumbed to the virus on Friday, when 33 new cases were also detected.

According to the health ministry’s announcement, the 89-year-old was the Republic’s 25th death that was fully attributed to the virus, with fatalities aged an average of 72 years.

Friday also saw 33 new coronavirus cases, which emerged after 2,891 tests were conducted, raising total known cases since the pandemic broke out in March to 1,951.

14 of Friday’s new cases were detected through contact tracing, among which one formed part of a cluster that currently counts five people.

12 more were detected among the samples collected from people who took the initiative to get tested. Two are tourists who arrived from London on October 4 and developed symptoms four days later. Eight got tested after developing symptoms, while another got tested due to being a contact of another case, despite not having been declared as a contact to the health ministry.

Two more who developed symptoms were referred for testing by their GP.

Another four cases involve passengers who arrived at Cyprus airports on Thursday. Three arrived at Paphos airport, from Berlin, the UK, and Thessaloniki, while one arrived at Larnaca airport from Lithuania.

One more case was detected among the samples collected at general hospitals, involving a person who developed symptoms.

The health ministry noted that in light of reports issued earlier on Friday regarding a new coronavirus cases involving a five-month-old baby, it said no such information has been received from any of the labs processing samples for coronavirus, and as such it cannot confirm any such case.

The Famagusta district is currently treating three coronavirus patients, while two more are intubated at the Nicosia general hospital ICU.