A 77 -year- old man dies of COVID-19, 25 new cases on Tuesday

A 77-year- old man with underlying health conditions but with cause of death the COVID-19 and 25 new cases were announced on Tuesday by the Cyprus authorities.

Twenty-seven deaths were reported so far on patients tested SARS-CoV-2 positive and twenty had COVID-19 as the final cause of death. Of the twenty people, 14 were male and 6 female and the median age is 71.

The 25 new cases were detected out of a total of 4,024 tests.

Thirteen cases were reported from the contact tracing procedure, three of which were done on a private initiative. Six were also done on a private initiative and one has a travel history (Thessaloniki) and displayed symptoms. Four patients also had symptoms and were tested privately while the other one was tested because of a planned operation at a private hospital.

Moreover one case was detected after a referral from a GP and the other three were detected at the airports (one from an Athens flight on August 10^th and two from a Thessaloniki flight on August 10^th). Two cases were found in the framework of 10,000 testing for employees and were asymptomatic. One was tested before getting back to work.

The Health Ministry in its announcement points out once again that we should look out for symptoms and contact our GP immediately. The GPs are also advised to be more vigilant and suspicious of the symptoms reported to them and refer patients to Public Clinics. The public is also advised to follow all the protective measures, to avoid mass gatherings and to practice social distancing. It is noted that most of the asymptomatic persons have intense social life and therefore the contact tracing procedure is more difficult.
 
Analytically the cases were detected as follows:

From 173 samples from contact tracing, 13 cases were detected, from 980 samples on private initiative, 6 cases were reported, one with travel history, from 149 samples in the framework of 10,000 tests on employees , two cases were detected, from 1,720 samples done at the airports, 3 cases were found and from 166 tests from GP referrals, one case was found.

No cases were detected out of 153 tests done at the Microbiological labs of General Hospitals and out of 683 tests from the random testing of 10,000 people.

The total of positive cases so far is 1,277. Five patients are being treated at the Famagusta Reference Hospital.