Almost 1.3 million PCR and antigen rapid coronavirus tests were carried out in Cyprus between March and Thursday, January 21, according to Ministry of Health data released on Friday.
Specifically, a total of 1,287,943 tests led to the tracing of 29,636 Covid-19 cases.
“This practise keeps Cyprus amongst top-ranking countries in Europe as regards the overall number of tests per population,” the Ministry said.
“The share of total covid-19 tests that were positive is now 2.3%, recording a substantial decrease over the past week,” it added.
As of Thursday, 791,630 laboratory tests were carried out through the molecular method and 18,518 cases were detected (positivity rate: 2.34%).
At the same time, 11,118 positive cases resulted from a total of 458,270 rapid antigen tests (positivity rate: 2.43%).
Increased laboratory surveillance of the population ensures the success of other pillars of the Ministry’s pandemic management strategy, it said.
That is, those of early detection of positive cases, isolation and tracking of contacts.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control provides that increased laboratory surveillance of a country’s population, combined with limited social contact, reduces the likelihood of the virus to be transmitted to the community.
Source: In-Cyprus
