Coronavirus: Concern grows over high ICU numbers and expected September rise in cases

The chairman of the Cyprus Respiratory Society expressed concern Tuesday over the high number of Covid patients in intensive care (ICU) and the possibility of the situation worsening with the schools opening in September.

Haris Armeftis said health authorities also expected a rise in cases after the summer holidays, as contacts increased.

“The problem is what is going to happen if intubation needs rise further and what will happen after the holidays,” he told the Cyprus News Agency.

Armeftis suggested the health system has gone over its limits with ICUs and high dependency units almost reaching capacity.

“Certainly, we are concerned about September,” he said of the schools reopening.

He said their concern was that there was no measure in place at the moment that could guarantee a reduction in hospitalisations.

The rise in vaccinations helped but it was not immediate.

“We think that someone who gets vaccinated today needs around 45 days to develop immunity that will protect them substantially.”

On the other hand, authorities were dealing with a highly transmissible variant of the virus that also affected vaccinated people and personal protection measures were not being followed, he said.

“Our only hope is for the vaccinations to put a halt on it but let us not forget that to be able to feel some safety with the Delta variant, you want double vaccinations to exceed 82 per cent,” he said.

Cyprus has fully vaccinated around 70 per cent of its adult population while 76 per cent have received at least one dose.

Armeftis said it was the specialised staff that helped patients get well in ICUs and they were not enough.

“Unfortunately, if someone or a relative do not go through this they cannot understand what we are saying, and they think we are dramatising things. You cannot not worry when you see human lives at risk, when you see human lives lost that could have been saved if they had received the vaccine.”