Another child taken to Makarios ICU from Pournara (Updated)

Another migrant child was taken to Makarios hospital’s ICU from the Pournara reception centre, state health services organisation (Okypy) spokesman Charalambos Charilaou said on Friday.

The child, who has chronic health issues, was admitted on Thursday night, and is being cared for with another two children taken to the ICU on Wednesday night after their boat was brought ashore.

The boat had been adrift at sea for six days, with five children that were on it now having been taken to hospital, while two adults are being treated at Larnaca hospital.

One of the children, a 5-year-old girl, died from a heart attack on Thursday, while her sibling remains in hospital. She remains in a critical condition.

Their mother, who had been taken to Pournara, visited the hospital on Thursday.

Charilaou said that all the parents have been allowed to visit their children.

Following the death of the little girl, another child was overnight taken to Makarios hospital with serious health issues.

The cause of death for the 3-year-old girl, who tragically passed away on Thursday while being treated in the paediatric intensive care unit of Makarios hospital, has not been identified.

According to the police, a post-mortem examination on the body of the girl was conducted on Friday at the Nicosia general hospital’s morgue.

However, it did not reveal the exact cause of her death. Biological samples were taken from the body and will be sent for further laboratory tests.

Charilaou said that currently two children are being cared for at Famagusta General and another three at Makarios hospital in addition to the two adults in Larnaca.

Speaking about the rescue of the migrant boat, Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Commander Andreas Charalambides explained that there were a total of 61 people aboard the boat when it was spotted, 11 of whom were taken to hospital.

Of those 11, four were transported by emergency helicopter, while the remaining seven were received by ambulances upon their arrival at the Ayia Napa marina.

There were 15 children on the boat, five of whom were unaccompanied. Asked about the ages of the children, he said those taken by helicopter to hospital were “around three or four years old”.

Speaking about the boat’s journey towards Cyprus, he explained that it had left Lebanon at midnight on January 18 before spending almost a week at sea. He said it was then spotted off the coast of Cyprus by a commercial vessel which was en route to Egypt.

The 61 were seen cramped in a wooden boat at 4.30am on Wednesday, around 30 nautical miles east of Cyprus.