CORONAVIRUS - 40 PER CENT OF COVID CASES ASYMPTOMATIC WHEN DIAGNOSED

 Cyprus Mail 11 September 2020 - by Staff  Reporter

Just under 40 per cent of Cyprus coronavirus cases were asymptomatic at the time of diagnosis, a health ministry report on the coronavirus situation issued on Friday said.

The latest National Surveillance Report by the ministry’s Epidemiological Surveillance Unit covering the period up till September 8 noted that in total 209 Covid-19 patients – 13.8 per cent of the total number of 1,511 confirmed cases – have received hospital care since the start of the outbreak in Cyprus.

It added that 29 deaths (case fatality rate: 1.9 per cent) have been reported. Covid-19 was the underlying cause of death for 22 of these.

The mortality rate for Covid-19 is 3.3 per 100,000 population.  Twenty-two deaths (75.9 per cent) occurred in men and seven (24.1 per cent) in women; the median age of all deaths was 76 years. Eleven deaths were reported among residents in Larnaca, eight in Paphos, five in Nicosia, three in Famagusta, and two in Limassol.

Of the 513 coronavirus cases reported in Cyprus from July 1 to September 8, a total of 196 or 38 per cent were imported, 287 (56 per cent) were locally acquired and 30 (six per cent) were unknown, the health ministry said.

Of the 1,338 cases for which the place of exposure was known, locally acquired infections (index cases and close-contacts of confirmed cases) were 966 (72.2 per cent). Of these 5.9 per cent (57) were related to a health-care facility (Paphos Hospital) and 13.2 per cent (128) were reported in Aradippou municipality.

Among all cases, 492 (32.6 per cent) were reported in Nicosia district, 388 (25.7 per cent) in Larnaca, 266 (17.6 per cent) in Limassol, 186 (12.3 per cent) in Paphos, 83 (5.5 per cent) in Famagusta and 96 (6.4 per cent) were reported either in the British bases or had a residence abroad, or information was not available.

The median age of all hospitalised patients is 62 years and 62.7 per cent are male.

The median age of cases is 39 years; 51.6 per cent are male and 48.4 per cent are female.

Of the 1,511 laboratory-confirmed Covid-19-cases, clinical information is available for 98 per cent (1,480), of which 39.7 per cent (588) reported no symptoms at diagnosis and 60.3 per cent (892) reported at least one symptom.

The most commonly reported symptoms were: cough (26.8 per cent), fever (27.9 per cent), myalgia (18.9 per cent), sore throat (15.7 per cent), anosmia (12 per cent), and shortness of breath (9.4 per cent).

Other reported symptoms were diarrhoea, runny nose, and headache.

A total of 323,311 tests have been performed up to September 8 (36,654.9 per 100,000 population). This is the second highest testing rate among seven countries for which comparisons are given (Italy, USA, UK, Greece, Malta, Sweden Netherlands and South Korea). Malta had the highest rate per 100,000 population with 42,143 and the Netherlands the lowest with 7,794.