Dust: A quarantine containment plan will be developed based on two indicators

The Minister of Health Arūnas Dulkys, the Head of the Lithuanian Department of Statistics (LSD), dr. Jūratė Petrauskienė and data analyst for this department Jonas Bačelis.

Will use new indicators

As A. Dulkys pointed out, the statistical report has been changing since Thursday. According to the minister, it will provide a greater understanding of the incidence of COVID-19, death from this infection and the tests.

“As an example, I could point to the problem of excess deaths, which can now be measured with new indicators.

I would like to highlight 3 important aspects. First is the number of patients. Unfortunately, the total number of patients reported to eHealth has never been exact.

From now on, the Department of Statistics will always provide a statistical calculation of this indicator in addition to the number of patients. This indicator is not used or has not been used in government decision-making related to possible quarantine changes, ”said A. Dulkys.

A. Dulkys also noted that the quarantine restriction plan uses 2 other indicators, on the basis of which quarantine changes will be made gradually, both at the national and municipal levels.

“The first indicator is not the incidence, but the number of new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 14 days. And the second indicator is the proportion of positive diagnostic tests of all tests performed within 7 days. And then, taking into account the intervals of the indicators of the plan A, B, C, D, the color zone of the municipalities on the map has changed accordingly as of today ”, said the Minister, adding that we are currently in Part C.

The third aspect introduced by the Minister is the expansion of the scope of the tests. According to A. Dulkis, it is currently gratifying that the number of sick and symptomatic people is decreasing. As a result, fewer people are being tested.

According to A. Dulkis, as a result, it is possible to start prophylactic tests on more people. The minister also invited everyone who is preparing to return to work to take the test. From now on, the data from the Department of Statistics will show how many people are doing COVID-19 surveys, how they are doing it and what results we are getting.

The data will be published on a larger scale.

J. Petrauskienė promised that from now on the COVID-19 data will be published in a larger volume.

“When we assumed the publication of these indicators, we reviewed many of them, we returned to the original source, in many cases to electronic health. […]

Only 4 epidemiological indicators are taken from the NVSC. They will be sent daily to the media and updated in the Department of Statistics, the bookmarks will be automatically updated and presented in open data format, ”said J. Petrauskienė.

3 definitions of deaths from COVID-19 were also introduced: the most limited and most used to date as the main cause of death is the COVID-19 disease; broader – when COVID-19 is not the main but one of the causes; more broadly, everyone who was diagnosed with COVID-19 and died within 28 days.

“After reviewing the indicators, we saw that there are cases in which a person has recovered, but there is no such record in the e-health system. Therefore, applying certain logical rules, we also present the number of patients and those who recovered. We can also see that on the whiteboards, ”said J. Petrauskienė.

Change promises and more

A. Dulkys admitted that the COVID-19 statistics in Lithuania were poorly managed, but the main indicators on the basis of which the decisions were made, that is, new cases, the number of positive cases were reliable because they were taken from primary sources.

“I don’t think our statistics journey is over, it seems to me that life is as simple as we can put some things into practice, and additional aspects may be clarified.

We also asked GPs to close the recovery cases that they already knew about on their card. We are also trying to make some changes with the National Center for Public Health ”, said the head of SAM.