Intensive care doctors warn of rapidly rising number of infections – Coronavirus Vienna

Over the weekend, the number of Covid 19 patients in Austria’s intensive care units decreased. It fell from 84 people on Saturday to 68 on Sunday. However, the seriousness of the situation should not be underestimated. The Austrian Society for Anesthesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care Medicine (ÖGARI) warned that intensive care capabilities “are by no means in a safe haven.”

“Unfortunately, the development regarding the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Austria is again very worrying. We have to issue a clear warning here, also regarding intensive care,” emphasized ÖGARI President Klaus Markstaller (MedUni Vienna / AKH Vienna). “Figuratively speaking, after a trip with our intensive care ship through largely unknown and dangerous waters, we were able to give our first thumbs up in the summer and hope to return to safe harbor soon.” So far one has not been in danger at sea, the overload of the supply system, which was rightly feared, has not occurred thanks to intensive and professional preparation in Austrian hospitals and the successful containment of the number of infections.

“Now there is a real danger again,” warned Markstaller. “Apparently some people are under the impression that, unlike a few months ago, the rapidly increasing number of infections has no impact on the capacities of hospitals and intensive care. This assumption would be a fatal mistake.”

It is probably correct that the proportion of patients requiring intensive care and hospital in the total number of those who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 is lower than in the first wave of the pandemic in the spring, among other things due to a change in testing strategy and younger people affected. “But we can only caution against the belief that this would mean that inpatient capacity would no longer be a problem. Even with a smaller percentage, the number of hospital admissions and intensive care increases linearly with the increasing number of infections, and this can reach worrying proportions. “

Between August 19 and September 19, the number of hospital admissions due to Covid-19 disease increased from 120 to 349, the number of intensive care patients, who react with a time delay to the increase in rates of infection and hospitalization, from 20 to 84 In terms of intensive care units, as many people are currently being treated again as at the beginning of May, with a clear upward trend.

“We can quickly reach the limit of our capacities if there is no braking effect, since hospital and intensive care capacities are urgent for the regular care of the population,” the expert emphasized. Currently, no other disease has the potential to jeopardize health system performance as much as Covid-19 through particularly rapid growth rates.

Because the situation in hospitals now is fundamentally different from the spring, noted the president of ÖGARI. “Unlike then, hospitals are now fully operational again when it comes to care for other diseases. And we want that too, so that no one is left behind. But that also means that operations are no longer a goal. For example, postponing operations that are not very necessary. Intensive capacities are kept free. And that means there is much less margin. What is often unknown: in routine operation, the utilization of intensive care capacities in hospitals is usually well above 80 percent, in many hospitals it is 90 percent or more.

In addition, there is a looming shortage of human resources. “An intensive care bed only helps if it can be used by a sufficient number of staff. If the number of infections continues to increase at a similar rate as before, inevitably more health workers will be affected again and we will lack care,” he emphasized Markstaller.

From ÖGARI’s point of view, the focus must now be refocused on containing infections. “We all have to see the seriousness of the situation, the well-known protection measures such as strict hand hygiene, keeping distance, restricting contacts and mouth-nose protection must be constantly practiced by everyone again, regardless of the traffic light that is switched on”. The forecast is not good. “Without the right measures, there is a risk that we will have to restrict routine hospital operations again, which we all want to avoid. Or that we lack treatment capabilities, which we definitely must prevent.”