Coronavirus outbreak at Panevėžys Hospital: infected patients and doctors

“At present, patients and staff are isolated, patients and staff in this department have undergone mandatory testing, and all rooms in the department have been immediately disinfected in accordance with all the requirements of the mandatory disinfection protocol for these. Cases The scheduled work in the Department of Neurosurgery is suspended until 6 November.

Neurosurgical assistance will continue to be provided at the hospital, but only those patients whose health condition requires immediate medical assistance will be hospitalized, ”Arvydas Skorupskas, director of the Republican Panevėžys Hospital, told JP news portal.

COVID-19 is also prescribed for three employees of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and 1 employee of the Child Development Center. As a result, the work of the Child Development Center is suspended for one day.

Currently, 24 patients with COVID-19 are treated at the Republican Panevėžys Hospital: 21 patients are treated at the Infectious Diseases Clinic, 2 patients in the Resuscitation and Intensive Care Unit and 1 patient in the Psychiatry Unit.

Another 5 patients have been evaluated and are awaiting responses.

“All other rooms are open, services are not suspended, but patient visits are still severely restricted: only patients with very serious conditions, children under 14 years of age and mothers can be visited, after agreeing on the time and the duration of visit with the head of the ward. Only 1 person can visit the patient at a time and for a maximum of 15 minutes. There can only be one visitor in the ward at a time, “said A. Skorupskas.

Sick doctors have a mild form

The head of the Panevėžys Hospital A.Skorupskas explained that sick doctors are in a mild form and recover at home.

“Doctors were infected in a very simple way, you can say from a visitor. Asymptomatically, the visitor visited the patient and infected him, and the patient was infected by doctors. The chain is very simple. It is good that we have a Control Department of Infections in the hospital and we can do the tests to find out where the disease is. The infected patient is currently being treated in the Infections Clinic, and the healthy patients in that room are isolated and are being monitored “, explained the director of the hospital .

We may soon show up in the red zone

After hearing the question about the situation both in Panevėžys and in the hospital, the director of the institution calmly explained that everything is related.

“We cannot separate the hospital from the city. Today we are in a disease zone, but very soon, if we do not follow the rules, we will appear in the red zone. Very little depends on the doctors. The key to success is the people. Protective masks, distances and attendance at events as little as possible are important. If we have won half, the first wave of infection, it does not mean that we have won all the matches, “said A.Skorupskas expressively.

Doctors became infected very simply, you can tell from the visitor.

According to the director of the Panevėžys Hospital, 24 of the 40 beds for infectious patients are occupied in the hospital.

“It just came to our notice then. If four more patients show up, the beds will be 70 percent occupied. Then you will have to go to Plan B and prepare a new unit for COVID-19, training staff. And it is not easy, It takes time. By the way, today we have all the safeguards. They are enough, but we have to be careful every day. If we take care of ourselves, we will also protect others “, said A. Skorupskas and suggested that the information provided by the Panevėžys Hospital should be constantly monitored as the situation changes: it is relevant, objective and informative knowledge.