GENERALISED TRANSMISSION OF CORONAVIRUS IN SOCIETY

 Filenews 20 October 2020 - by Marilena Panagi

The transmission of coronavirus to society is generalised, that is, it is not limited to small and local chains, but, it is generally found in the population, experts stress, with their eyes on the city of Limassol, where, they believe, transmission chains are now impossible to trace in time, due to the huge number of contacts, declared by each person, which is positive for the virus.

At the same time, the dispersion of the coronavirus is taken for granted, at the Pancyprian level and today, scientists are expected to hold a meeting with each other in order to re-evaluate the situation.

Anxiety prevails over the situation in hospitals, since, as we can see, in the last week, 80% of people with a positive result show symptoms and at the same time, the number of people who need and receive hospitalization is gradually increasing, remaining fortunately until this moment at an alarming but good level.

Yesterday, 19 patients were treated at Famagusta Hospital. One in the Increased Care Unit. Two other patients were being treated in a ward at the Nicosia Hospital and two other patients remained intubated in the Intensive Care Unit.

The Ministry of Health, in an effort to protect vulnerable groups of the population, yesterday reintroduced regulations regarding supermarkets, fruit shops, pharmacies, grocery stores, fish markets, mini markets, and butchers. Therefore, under the new decree of the Minister of Health, "from the time of the start of operation of these operations until 9 a.m., they will serve only persons over 60 years of age and persons with disabilities. The measure has pancyprian effect (not for bakeries, kiosks and/or other places where service takes place in a short period of time and there is no overcrowding).

"The period we are going through is very, very critical. We see areas where we have generalized transmission of the virus," said Professor Georgios Nikolopoulos, estimating that "based on the data we have now, we expect an increase in cases and an increase in hospital admissions and probably some admissions to intensive care units". Of course, he added, "we see that internationally the number of people who are seriously ill is decreasing, but this may also be attributed to the fact that in the past period and the ages of people who tested positive for the virus were smaller, i.e. we had more young people. That is why we say that we must respect the measures because we also have vulnerable groups of the population."

"People may be tired, but the dispersion of the coronavirus is now confirmed beyond doubt and this is a fact that we should not ignore," Professor Zoe Dorothea Pana said for her part. "Compliance with the measures is imperative because we don't want to see people in ICU, we don't want to see people die," he said.

A total of 43 new cases of coronavirus were announced yesterday. However, as the Ministry of Health pointed out in its communication, "most laboratories did not carry out sampling on Sunday and therefore did not follow laboratory tests. Also, during the weekend and yesterday, laboratory tests were not completed, from the various programs in progress (COP, nursing homes, etc.).

In addition, the Ministry of Health states, "of the total of 2,558 samples completed yesterday, 1,577 concerned passengers arriving on various flights at Cyprus airports. Four cases occurred. Therefore, the remaining 39 cases are the result of only 981 laboratory tests carried out in the context of tracing, through a private initiative, the special teams and the laboratories of public hospitals and concerning people from the community. In other words, one in 25 people from the community who have been tested positive for the virus, which demonstrates the magnitude of the spread in society.

Hospitals not ready, nurses warn

Hospitals are not ready, due to severe under-care, to deal with the second wave of the pandemic, argues the Cyprus Nurses Guild, pointing out in a statement that the problem is more acute at Famagusta Hospital, which functions as a reference hospital. PASYO even calls on "the OKYP, the Ministry of Health and the Parliament to assume their responsibilities and to provide quickly and immediately solutions, helping and actively supporting health officials in this new battle with the invisible enemy".

The guild, at the same time, denounces the OKYY for "failure to agree" and points out that "on 23 June 2020 it was decided to immediately recruit 160 nurses, in the first instance, and then another 100 nurses by February 2021. In fact, it was conditioned that another 48 nurses would be saved from other services, but so far we have not seen any savings."

"We are going through the third week of October, the second wave of pandemics is just around the corner and there has been no new recruitment," the nurses stress, adding: "our hospitals remain understaffed and a large number of nursing staff have not taken their summer leave to rest. The biggest problem is at the Reference Hospital, which shoulders the greatest burden of the second phase of the pandemic. It is also only today that we have been informed that there is overcrowding at the Athalassa Hospital, a situation that has been going on for some time, without the safe number of staff."

The announcement of PASYO comes only 24 hours after the presentation of the "integrated pandemic response plan", prepared and presented to the Minister of Health, the OKY. Moreover, in a statement yesterday, the Agency's spokesperson, Charalambos Charilaou, reiterated that "the OKYP has prepared its operational plan, even nominal lists have been drawn up, so that it knows its staff, duties and responsibilities, depending on the stage at which the pandemic is at and the level of completeness of our hospitals".

"Unfortunately, we see that the number of admissions of patients with coronavirus has started to increase in recent days. We hope that this will not continue, but the public hospitals are ready for any eventuality. We have taken into account the gaps identified during the first phase of the pandemic and have included relevant arrangements in our new design, precisely so that we do not repeat the same mistakes and do not face the same problems."