Easter relaxations up in the air

Member of government’s health advisory committee Professor Petros Karayiannis said it remains unclear whether any relaxations will be made over the Easter period, since daily new coronavirus cases have yet to stabilise.

Karayiannis said certain relaxations might be made, such as the number of persons allowed to attend church services, but said this would depend on the public’s behaviour.

He stressed that the situation at the moment is not stable, featuring ups and downs ranging from 400 to 600 cases daily, making it difficult for safe conclusions to be drawn.

The surge in cases is rooted in the spread of the British variant of the virus, Karayiannis said, noting that overall fatigue is also contributing to health and safety rules being flouted.

Given that current rules aren’t are strict as back in January, so it’s difficult to predict when lower numbers of daily cases will set in.

"We are circulating, moving, the economy is active, therefore it is even more difficult to see a decrease in cases in a short period of time."

Cases plummeting among vaccinated age groups

Data being collected by the health ministry’s epidemiological surveillance unit are indicating that the numbers of daily cases and hospital admissions are on a steady decline as regards age groups so far covered by the island’s vaccine rollout.

By contrast, higher numbers of younger age groups are testing positive for the virus. The data showed that six out of 10 cases detected between April 1 and 10 involved people aged 19-50. Specifically, from a total of 4,737 cases, 1,008 (21.3%) involved people aged 19-29, 907 (19.1%) were people in the 30-39 age group, while 707 (14.9%) were aged 40-49. That same period saw a total of 579 cases detected in the 50-59 age group, which currently holds priority for booking a jab appointment.

As regards people aged over 70, who have received at least their first vaccine dose if they opted for it, the first 10 days of April saw just 188 test positive, corresponding to just 4% of total cases.

A similar trend is being observed as regards hospital admissions of coronavirus cases. During the first 10 days of April, the average age of coronavirus patients was 62.5 years old, the average age of ICU patients standing at 60.5 years.