Coronavirus: ‘the only illness’ where people pass away all alone

Coronavirus is “the only illness” where patients lack human contact and pass way alone, the medical director of Famagusta reference hospital for coronavirus Amalia Hadjiyianni said on Saturday.

“These people [coronavirus patients] experience moments of loneliness and they passed without saying goodbye to their loved ones. It is the only illness that one cannot touch their hand, kiss them or say goodbye to them… even at the time of their funeral,” Hadjiyianni said in her statements to Alpha news, a year after the pandemic outbreak on the island.

The medical director was called to comment on the coronavirus disease considering the increase on hospital admissions in recent days.

She said that after Christmas celebrations, more patients who belong in younger age groups were being hospitalised while “few admissions concern older age groups”.

“This might be due to the vaccinations that appear to have protected the older groups,” Hadjiyianni said.

There are patients from different age groups, mainly 30s to 50s, Hadjiyianni said, while there were cases of teenagers and people in their early twenties also treated for Covid at the hospital. The median age of coronavirus patients fell to 60 instead of the average of 69-70 in the first wave.

Despite the fact that most young people are not in serious condition, Hadjiyianni said, there were cases when they needed to be transferred to the ICU.

In his statements, the spokesman of the state health services organisation (Okypy) Charalambos Charilaou said there was the provision for more than 300 beds for Covid-19 patients in state hospitals.

Paphos general hospital will allocate beds from other wards starting next week, by transferring the non-Covid patients in other parts of the hospital.

The spokesman highlighted the need to focus on other patients during the pandemic.

“We must look at the health system holistically, not just the coronavirus patients but the rest of the patients since a large number of people without Covid are also treated in state hospitals which surpassed 80 per cent of their capacity,” he added.

Health professionals have also issued multiple warnings to the public concerning the collateral losses due to the virus as many people are afraid to visit the hospitals in fear of getting infected and only do so when their condition worsens.