Well-Staffed Public Health Directorates
Almost one thousand medical personnel have been posted to local public health directorates to help carry out epidemiological investigations
Eugen Coroianu, 04.08.2020, 14:00
The Romanian Health Minister Nelu Tataru has announced that the Public Health Directorates are well staffed. He has stated that some one thousand school doctors and nurses have been posted to all counties to help carry out epidemiological investigations, against the background of a spike in the number of Covid-19 cases. The minister has explained that each case of infection must be analyzed, and the epidemiological investigation must be carried out within 24 hours. The results are entered into a data base, so that any outbreak can be tracked and the necessary action taken. “By doing correct epidemiological investigations, by securing correct epidemiological circuits in hospitals, through checks, we will register a decrease in transmission and we will also see a drop in the number of cases”, Tataru explained on a television station. The statements and measures come after media reported situations in which people could not contact public health directorate employees.
On Monday, the Health Minister made an unannounced visit to the Emergency County Hospital in Galati, in the east, which has a mobile Intensive Care Unit, which is not functional due to lack of staff. Doctors will be deployed there too, although the hospital can cope with its own intensive care unit. The number of new cases of coronavirus infection might drop in the coming period if some rules are observed, minister Tataru stressed:
“It very much depends on our behavior. As long as we observe some rules, such as keeping the right physical distance, wearing a mask in enclosed spaces and in public means of transport, or using a disinfectant, community spread will decrease. This means that in a week and a half the curb will get flat, and then we will see a drop in the number of cases, therefore we can think of going down the hill of the first pandemic episode. Unless we observe the rules, we will witness an increasing number of new cases, from one day to the next, which will at some point suffocate medical units, intensive care units in general, and the situation will get a bit more difficult. At the moment we have identified and can prepare hospitals for the third and fourth line, but we hope it wont be necessary. The context in which we find ourselves is the one in which we must abide by certain rules. As long as we think only of finding hospitals, without following the rules, and the number of patients keeps growing, it will get too much for hospitals and the medical personnel.”
He has also said that a decision regarding the start of the new school year will be made in the second half of this month. (M. Ignatescu)
