I'd still maintain that, in most cases, select count(*) is more efficient in human terms - less coding and somewhat easier to understand when you return to it two years hence - unless you spend half a screen explaining why you need that cursor!
"The power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous" - Gibbon, quoted by R.P.Feynman
use_explicit_cursor returned TRUE!!!
use_explicit_cursor Time (seconds) 0
use_select_into returned TRUE!!!
use_select_into_1 Time (seconds) 0
use_select_into returned TRUE!!!
use_select_into_2 Time (seconds) 0
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
Elapsed: 00:00:00.00