Second sick soldier not suffering from heatstroke, says army

There has been no second heatstroke incident involving a new recruit, the defence ministry said in a statement on Wednesday, in response to false press reports claiming another conscript showed the same symptoms as a soldier in Larnaca last week.

“There has been no new heatstroke incident, nor has the soldier been transferred to the military hospital,” the statement said.

According to the National Guard command, the ministry said, during special-forces test drills in Limassol early on Tuesday, one of the conscripts felt weakness and was immediately rushed to the Limassol general hospital.

Testing revealed mild exhaustion and dehydration, the statement said.

The defence ministry added that the soldier’s father was immediately informed of the incident.

The soldier’s condition, doctors said, was deemed “very good” and he is expected to be released on Thursday.

Marios Antoniou, the boy’s father, said he had been informed by the army officers immediately, but reported some confusion as he was initially told that his son had returned to the barracks, and later that he was being transferred to the military hospital in Nicosia.

In fact, the boy had never left the Limassol general.

“I want to voice the parents’ concern – these things are not right,” Antoniou said, adding that there ought to be better coordination.

Meanwhile, the soldier who suffered heatstroke in Larnaca last week remains in the Nicosia general’s intensive care unit, but his condition shows signs of improvement.

“He is better, he is stable,” an unidentified doctor cited by the Cyprus News Agency was reported as saying.

But his condition, the doctor added, remains serious.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.