Hospitalizations down but deaths still up

There has been a drop in hospitalizations in Cyprus but deaths attributed to Covid-19 were still high, along with post-recovery patients no longer infected but still intubated in state hospitals.

According to the health ministry, 167 people were receiving treatment in hospitals across the Republic of Cyprus, with the medical condition for 61 of them described as serious.

Petros Karayiannis, a health expert on the government’s scientific advisory committee, pointed to hospitalizations as a crucial indicator in the overall pandemic, suggesting on state radio Monday morning that hospitalizations were down as fewer people were being infected in the community. 

“This was the core index based on which strict measures had been taken,” Karayiannis said, adding that a drop in hospitalizations reflected an overall decrease in Covid cases within the community.

But there were no signs of relaxations of measures including strict Safe Pass rules according to local media, with health officials pointing to concerns over COVID deaths in younger adults.

Officials also said there were 14 post-COVID cases that were no longer infectious but the patients still intubated in state hospitals due to other illnesses.

But the spokesperson for State Health Services Organization, Charalambos Charilaou, said he was concerned over infected people not seeking medical treatment promptly.

“There has been a drop in hospitalizations but one of the concerns remains the deaths of younger adults,” Charilaou said, adding that some patients were late in seeking hospital care.

Last week there were reports that the death of an infected patient took place after falling sick during a prescription-drug treatment and refusing to check into a hospital despite being urged by friends to seek medical care.

Additional media said the patient, described as an unvaccinated person who had taken a stance against vaccinations, had sought treatment from a private medical doctor who prescribed a combination of drugs known as an antibody cocktail.

Local media reports suggested the patient died at least one week after checking into a state hospital, with local experts also speculating his condition had worsened after the private doctor had put him on an “unauthorized regimen.”

The health ministry and the attorney general’s office have called for more information into the case, with a police probe currently underway to determine whether any criminal offenses had been committed.

As of Sunday, there were 499 deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the Republic of Cyprus since the start of the pandemic. Additional details of medical histories including vaccination status in those cases are not being made public based on a health ministry decision, but officials say 84.08% of all those hospitalized with COVID were unvaccinated.