Minister no longer allows search for hidden COVID-19 cases: investigation point in Kaunas, out of work

P.Keras spoke about how Kaunas handles COVID-19 during the Seimas Health Affairs Committee hearings last week. He stated that the mobile station installed in Kaunas is currently investigating only symptomatic cases and “the number of investigations is unreasonably small.”

“Today, our mobile point operates between 30 and 40 percent capacity. <...>

At present, only symptomatic cases are mainly studied. If we see official statistics that in Kaunas in recent days, let’s say, about 1,5 thousand. research, is carried out at the moving point around 600.

Investigation [dar] they are performed in private laboratories, where it is not at all who they are performed for, people finance them with their own funds, or in the Kaunas Clinical Hospital and LSMU clinics, where employees are examined.

But in general, only symptomatic cases are studied in the population, and asymptomatic cases are no longer studied at all, ”said the deputy director of Administration.

Limited preventive investigations

According to him, this happened because the Minister changed the procedure for preventive examinations: municipalities can no longer exclude employees from certain groups, such as companies or institutions where COVID-19 cases have been registered, and initiate preventive examinations for them.

“As of October 30, the order that regulated the research groups, including the prevention groups, was modified, leaving only social workers and doctors. The part where the municipalities were allowed to identify other preventive research groups disappeared.

At that time, when fires appeared in the workplace, we used the investigation. <...> We immediately identified the circle of medium-high risk individuals, examined it, and thus stopped the spread at the hotspots quite quickly. ” 15 minutes P.Ker commented.

“We cannot do that now,” he added, noting that COVID-19 is spreading in the workplace and in families.

See the need to trace asymptomatic contacts

Kerer said populations exposed to high-risk exposure to COVID-19 should be isolated, but not tested until symptoms of the disease appear.

And without investigating the asymptomatic cases, Mr. Kerr does not convince us to find out how widespread the virus really is: But we do not know how much it moved, how many contacts it had. That is, if we detect those asymptomatic cases, we immediately trace the next round, the contacts of the asymptomatic case. “

If we detect those asymptomatic cases, we immediately trace the next round.

“Initially we had, perhaps, weak, half asymptomatic forms of COVID-19 and the strongest. Asymptomatic cases certainly represented a significant proportion. Now we basically only have symptomatic cases, “explained P. Kerer.

Minister: Laboratories have a very heavy workload

Acting Health Minister A.Veryga admitted that now that a particularly large number of COVID-19 cases are being recorded, efforts are being made to investigate patients with symptoms, as well as doctors and employees of the institutions. of social care.

Due to the large number of tests and the limited capacity of the laboratories, this is why preventive tests are limited.

“You know very well that we do a lot of research every day, we are among the countries where we probably do more tests, it is really a very big burden for laboratories. We are really trying to screen symptomatic people first and to assess the groups where the risk is highest: healthcare workers, nurses and care workers, where they are most needed. As a result, preventive tests are limited, as the scope of those other tests has increased considerably, ”explained A. Veryga during a press conference on Friday.

There are priorities, but others need to be explored

The minister approved the list in April. Groups for which COVID-19 samples are determined in laboratories on a priority basis.. Includes people who have experienced COVID-19 symptoms; the staff, patients and rooms of care and treatment centers where the disease is spreading; patients are transferred from the hospital to nursing and supportive care centers; soldiers returning from missions; people returning from abroad; COVID-19 patients who want to see if they have recovered.

This list does not mention people who have had high-risk contact with those infected, but the National Center for Public Health (NVSC) has assured that they are also under study.

“Investigate high-risk individuals who agree to undergo PCR testing for coronavirus” 15 minutes said Justina Petravičienė, specialist from NVSC’s Internal Administration Division.

The same said Nerijus Mikelionis, director of the Kaunas Ambulance (GMP) station, which manages the hotline in 1808. He stressed that COVID-19 prevention studies are also being carried out for some population groups.

“There are several main research streams: preventive and symptomatic research. Preventive workers, that is, health, social and assistance workers, who must be prevented by decision of the head of operations. Of course, contacts will also be recorded”, 15 minutes commented.

According to data from the Statistics Department this Monday, during the last 7 days more than 9.7 thousand COVID-19 Studies, 17.7 percent. they were positive.

Morbidity rate at 14 days 100 thousand. the population in the municipality of Kaunas reaches 1021.6. In Lithuania, this indicator is 989.2.