COVID19: Children intake at Makarios Hospital doubles

According to doctors, the number of children treated for COVID-19 at Nicosia’s specialist Makarios Hospital has doubled in the past week.

In comments to the Cyprus News Agency, Dr Avraam Elia said: “The last few days, we have seen an increase in the number of admissions of children with Covid.

“Where the average was around two or three children a day, the number is now up to six or seven a day”.

He attributed the increase to lifting restrictive measures and the BA4 BA5 Omicron sub-variants.

The head of the Makarios Hospital’s paediatric ward said most minors treated for COVID are babies and young children under five.

On Wednesday, six children were being treated for COVID at the hospital, with two of them under the age of one.

Elia said the children present higher temperatures than the previous variants, lasting longer, on average, three to four days.

“Besides the temperature, the child feels unwell, has loss of appetite, gastrointestinal disorders and some children are admitted so that they can receive intravenous hydration and supportive treatment.”

Dr Elia said they were not in a serious condition, nor did they have an infection of the lower respiratory tract.

“One of the things that concern us is the latest complication observed in children with COVID, the multisystem inflammatory syndrome, known as the Minsk syndrome, which is usually observed a few weeks after falling ill with coronavirus.

This is something we are monitoring.”

Asked why more children were being admitted with Covid-19, Elia said this was due to the scrapping of measures, including mask-wearing.

He also pointed out the emergence of Omicron subvariants, mainly the BA5, which is highly infectious and easily causes disease.