Coronavirus: Hospital situation ‘manageable’ says Okypy

Despite increased hospitalisations, including young people in a serious condition, the state health services organisation Okypy on Monday reassured that the situation in public hospitals is manageable.

“There are many young people being treated for Covid who are in serious condition,” Okypy’s spokesman Charalambos Charilaou told the Cyprus Mail.

As of Monday, 276 people were hospitalised with Covid-19 in state hospitals, 71 of whom were in serious condition, including 34 being treated in the ICU. The majority of patients in the ICU, 32, were intubated, Charilaou said.

The patients include a 16-year-old girl with breathing problems, who is currently the only underage Covid patient, as well as a 22-year-old pregnant woman who is in the ICU.

According to Charialou, 88.78 per cent of them are unvaccinated.

Commenting on hospitals’ capacity, the official assured that the service has “as many beds as there will be necessary” and that “no patient will be left without medical care”.

There are more than 300 beds assigned for coronavirus patients, Charilaou said, and described the situation as “manageable”.

Citing the daily coronavirus cases, he said the epidemiological situation has “stabilised” and since cases have recorded a slight reduction, this is expected to be translated to hospitalisations.

However, more patients were expected to be transferred to ICU, he said, explaining that data suggest about ten per cent of hospitalisations will need to intensive care.

At the same time, Charilaou said more than 4,000 people have been treated for coronavirus since the pandemic started, including more than 400 who needed treatment in ICU units.

“The vast majority of the patients saw a full recovery,” he added.

Cyprus has the lowest mortality rate among EU member states, standing at 0.4 per cent, the spokesman said, which is due to the “appropriate staffing and high-quality medical care to the patients”.

So far, 401 people have died from coronavirus out of 97,718 people who tested positive for Covid-19 on the island.

Charilaou finally called on the public to abide by health protocols, but also to proceed to vaccination to curb the spread of the virus.