Coronavirus: no deaths, 324 new cases announced on Thursday (Updated)

The health ministry on Thursday announced 324  new cases of Covid-19 from 21,300  PCR and rapid tests yielding a positivity rate of 1.52 per cent.

There were no new deaths and the toll remains at 248.

There are  196 people in hospitals  of whom 51 are in serious condition. Of those, 23 are intubated.

Of the 21,300 tests 2,378 were PCR and 18,922 rapid tests detecting a total of 324 positives as follows:

• 122 cases from 870 samples taken through contact tracing 
• 56 cases from 1,039 samples taken through private initiative
• 5 cases from 340 samples processed at hospital labs 
• 2 cases from 127 samples tested at private labs and pharmacies
• 139 cases from 18,795 samples taken under the health ministry’s free testing programme 

From the latter, 80 cases were in Limassol with a positivity rate of 1.38 per cent, 25 in Nicosia with a positivity rate of 0.4 per cent and in Famagusta 15, a positivity rate of 1.3 per cent.

In addition, the following laboratory tests were performed without detecting a case:

• 129 samples taken under the programme of referrals by GPs