The pulmonology and related wards at public hospitals are under immense strain due to the influx of admissions.

Okypy’s spokesman Charalambos Charilaou told RIK on Tuesday morning that the wards dealing with the ongoing outbreak of respiratory illnesses, spearheaded by influenza A, are crowded.

He cautioned that patients in other wards have also become infected due to the surge in admissions of patients with such illnesses.

Charilaou emphasised, however, that there is a constant rolling review of the situation and that it currently remains manageable.

As for the Covid situation, the spokesman explained that there 96 such patients of whom six are intubated and ten are in the high dependency ward.

Elsewhere, Michalis Anastasiades, president of the Cyprus paediatric society, warned that children returning to school has exacerbated the spread of respiratory illnesses.

He called on parents to not send their children to school if they are sick.