Five people have died from symptoms associated with the flu on Monday, bringing the total number of influenza-related deaths to 12 since December, health ministry permanent secretary Elisavet Constantinou said.

Hospitals have recently reported struggling with bed shortages while infections surged, which saw 98 inpatients by Friday.

Despite the increase in deaths, the number of hospital admissions for Influenza A has stabilised, with the overall number of cases beginning to decline, state health services organisation (Okypy) spokesman Charalambos Charilaou said.

He said that patients with influenza A continued to suffer from a wide range of symptoms, from milder cases to more severe ones requiring hospitalisation in intensive care units.

Charilaou said that an increase in influenza A cases was expected over the winter period and added that while the number of cases is “notable”, it is, for the moment, not a cause for concern, assuring that authorities were continuously monitoring the situation.

This season’s number of flu deaths are above those of last year primarily including elderly people with underlying health conditions and one infant who died of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), amounting to a total of eleven.

“[The] flu vaccination, especially for high-risk groups, remains the most effective preventive measure against serious illness,” Constantinou said last week.

Constantinou had previously assured the public that the health ministry had taken the necessary preparatory measures, emphasising that the healthcare system was “adequately prepared”.

By the end of 2025, around 110,000 vaccinations had been recorded in the government’s flu vaccination programme, made widely available through the general healthcare system Gesy, with vulnerable groups accounting for around 75 per cent of uptake.

At the same time, only around 3,800 people had been vaccinated against Covid-19.