Health ministry reports two deaths, 665 cases

The health ministry announced two coronavirus fatalities and 665 new cases on Monday, raising the death toll to 133 and total cases to 24, 639.

The fatalities involved two men, aged 73 and 88, both of whom suffered from underlying conditions.

So far, the deaths of 89 men (67%) and 44 women (33%) have been attributed to the virus.

The 665 new cases emerged after 13,495 tests were conducted.

Of these, 364 were people who tested positive to a rapid test, 107 of which were detected in Limassol, 104 in Larnaca, 113 in Nicosia, nine in Paphos, and 10 in Famagusta.

The remaining 204 were contacts, four were arrivals to Cyprus airports, 46 were people who took the initiative to get tested, 45 were people who got tested at general hospitals, while two more were detected through the program of repeat tests on arrivals from the UK on the seventh day of their mandatory isolation in local hotels.

Cyprus hospitals are currently treating 180 patients, 51 of which are in critical condition.

65 patients are in the Famagusta general hospital, four of which are in the ICU. The Nicosia general hospital is also treating 65 patients, 30 of which are in the ICU. 40 more coronavirus patients are at the Limassol general hospital, while 10 more are at the Makario hospital in Nicosia.

Meanwhile, the health ministry announced Monday that scientists at the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics (CING) who screened 24 samples of people who tested positive in the last week of December to assess whether the new highly-transmissible strain of coronavirus spread among the local community found the new strain in one of the samples, indicating that it has reached the local community. The screening may be repeated with a larger base.