Nicosia takes lead in number of new coronavirus cases

Over half of the new coronavirus cases detected during the first two weeks of December were Nicosia-based, the new national surveillance report published Friday showed, while December has already broken the record in the highest numbers of coronavirus fatalities in any given month.

According to the new report, which deals with the period between November 30 and December 13, 4,425 coronavirus cases were detected during those two weeks alone, with the median age of cases being 36 years.

A vast majority of new cases (98.8% or 4,372) were locally-acquired, while just 53 or 1.2% were imported.

Specifically, 2,373 or 53.6% were detected in the Nicosia district, 1,050 (23,7%) in Larnaca, 386 (8.7%) in Famagusta, 383 (8.7%) in Limassol, 121 (2.7%) in Paphos, and 112 (2.5%) were reported either in the British bases or had a residence abroad, or information was not available.  

The report said 29.9% (1,323) of new cases over the two-week period reported no symptoms at diagnosis and 70.1% (3,102) reported at least one symptom.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic in March and until December 13, the Republic of Cyprus had carried out 665,112 PCR tests.

On Thursday night, the health ministry said the Republic of Cyprus has so far detected a total of 16,647 cases and recorded 85 coronavirus fatalities.

December breaks single-month death toll record

The first sixteen days of December have seen the highest coronavirus death toll to be recorded in a single month, data released by the health ministry showed on Friday.

Of the total of 85 people whose death was fully attributed to virus, 36 (38%) had died in December, while an additional six people who had contracted coronavirus died this month though their cause of death was not attributed to the virus.

The majority (17) of coronavirus fatalities in December involved Nicosia residents, followed by 15 deaths involving Limassol residents. 

The 80-84 age group of accounts for 28% or 31 of the deaths. 18, or almost one in five deaths was in the 75 -79 age group.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Limassol is the district hit hardest with 36 deaths attributed to the disease, followed by 24 in Nicosia, 12 in Larnaca, nine in Paphos and four in Famagusta.