CORONAVIRUS - HOSPITALS ON STANDBY FOR THE WORST

 Filenews 16 October 2020 - by Marilena Panagi

The worst is just around the corner. Hospitals on standby. Scientists and the Ministry of Health are anxious for continuity. Cyprus yesterday recorded a new record number of cases. One hundred and four new cases confirm the size of the dispersion of the crown in Cypriot society. The look on the hospitals. Yesterday, seven patients were hospitalized while two people remain intubated in the Intensive Care Unit.

Every one of you should be on alert. At the Ministry of Health, a meeting was held during which the Agency of State Health Services presented to the Minister of Health, Konstantinos Ioannou, his action plan for the next period. The work plan of health professionals has been defined and the scenarios to be implemented have been finalised, depending on the evolution of the pandemic.

Today, the Ministers of Health and Finance will again call for the cooperation of employers' organisations and guilds, since, as the health authorities note, the largest dispersion of the crown is found in workplaces.

It is no coincidence that yesterday the Ministry of Health stressed that "the non-compliance with the measures of personal protection and social distancing from a portion of citizens, but also the health protocols by part of the companies, causes transmission of the virus in the family, social and working environment, with the visible risk of derailment".

Meetings will also take place with the student factions as the number of students who are positive for the crown virus grows and the chains of transmission of the virus to youth grow.

For their part, scientists are alert. The data of each day are analysed and as reported by "F" information, a new assessment of the situation will be carried out over the weekend, with the possibility of proposals to increase the restrictive measures at local level, depending on the epidemiological picture presented by each geographical area of Cyprus.

Feverishly, the members of the tracing team are also working, since the increased numbers of cases recorded each day have made the work of the officers of the Infectious Diseases Epidemiological Surveillance Unit extremely difficult. The aim is to identify contacts of new cases as quickly as possible and to isolate them in order to stop the further spread of the virus in society, a task which seems almost impossible, since freedom of movement of citizens results in dozens of people being identified in each new case, which are declared as close contacts.

As regards yesterday's report, 93 out of 104 new cases resulted from a total of 3,877 laboratory tests, which means that one in forty people tested positive for the virus.

Hospitals on full alert

The design of the Organization of State Health Services, "is detailed and covers all possible and possible scenarios," OKY spokesman Charalambos Charilaou told "F".

Among other things, he explained, "a nominal list for health professionals has already been prepared in each hospital, needs have been classified according to each level of outbreak and so, we are now ready to act according to the data before us."

In general, he said, "patients with coronavirus, i.e. people who show symptoms and need hospitalization in a ward, will be transferred to famagusta hospital, which is still classified as a Reference Hospital. Suspicious cases will remain in provincial hospitals while patients in need of Intensive Care Unit services will be transferred to Nicosia General Hospital, as was the case in the previous period."

At the same time, the planning, the SPOKESPERSON said, "suggestions have also been made for the involvement of the private sector in the whole effort and the Ministry of Health is expected to enter into a consultation with private hospitals that may be involved in the process of managing suspicious incidents."

In any case, Mr. Charilaou concluded, "the OKY and the public hospitals are on full alert. The data shows us that we will unfortunately have an increase in hospital admissions and we believe that by building on the experience we gained last spring, we will be able to provide the right services to patients who will need care. We have seen our weaknesses, we have recorded our gaps and we have taken our measures, because let us not forget that, in the months to come, we will not only have to deal with the coronavirus, but also seasonal influenza."