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In just one week, the proportion of infected people who tested positive for COVID-19 in Stockholm has doubled from 8 to 16 percent. The number of infected people has also risen sharply in Stockholm’s nursing homes. The number of households with one or more cases of covidity has risen from 18 to 28 in just one week. Currently, 43 elderly patients with covid are cared for only in geriatric care.
Maria Rotzén Östlund is a practicing infection control physician in the Stockholm region and chooses to answer DN’s questions via email.
Why are not all health and nursing staff screened regularly?
– The idea of periodically evaluating health and care personnel may seem attractive. However, it is just a snapshot that you get. To contract a COVID-19 infection in an employee, you need to test the employee at fairly short intervals, which requires logistics and also a large consumption of sampling material. Furthermore, much greater analytical capacity than is possible would be needed to sample all health and care workers in the region at regular intervals.
The study shows that more than half of those infected had no symptoms, shouldn’t everyone be tested then?
– It seems to be true that some may be sick without presenting symptoms. Unfortunately, I have not personally read the study, so it is difficult to comment on the exact figures. Therefore, the benefit of such sampling, in which fewer individuals are likely to be identified as positive for COVID-19, must be weighed against the efforts that would be required. Especially since, according to the study, it seems that many of those who tested positive, especially in recent weeks, did not present any symptoms.
At the same time, are care and nursing staff prioritized for home testing?
– Nursing and care staff should stay home and perform tests, even if they have mild symptoms. It is important and a priority. And staff sampling, along with sampling from patients and those living in nursing homes, is therefore prioritized and carried out even if home testing for other residents is currently on hold.
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