Filenews 15 January 2021 - by Marilena Panagi
The rate of positivity, (number of cases in relation to the examinations carried out), remains high, "despite the decrease recorded in recent days", stressed during a press conference, the head of the Advisory Scientific Committee Professor Konstantinos Tsiotis. There is a need, he added, "to continue with the implementation of existing measures, which are intended to stem contacts in order to act even further and reach a safer February."
"I say again that we are still at high levels, in some provinces we are seeing rates go up, and if we now have a reduction, we have a large burden of disease that will turn into hospitalizations," he added, indicating that we must "wait in the next few weeks to see if the issue of hospitalizations starts to improve as well."
The goal for the next few days, he said, "is to see an improvement in the situation in hospitals, combined with vaccinations, so that high-risk individuals can begin to be protected."
"It will take two to three weeks to see the maximum possible result because we remain at very high levels. We're also looking at the cumulative impact of the last 14 days, so the last four or five days, when we've seen a drop, don't tell us much. And the other is the hospitals, it's not about the nurses falling below 200 and saying we're okay. The situation is problematic because let us not forget the people who come to hospitals with symptoms."
"We should not expect zero cases, we will not get the results we had in the summer, but the effort is to have a significant improvement so that we can get more safely into February."
Explaining how the measures were taken in the past few months, Mr Tsiotis said that "a key focus of the measures taken in scale since October is to reduce concentrations, reduce overcrowding, reduce the maximum number of people and reduce contacts. Given the situation we saw mainly in December, the latest measures were aimed at slowly reducing the burden on the community and observing hospital admissions. We see a number of our fellow citizens getting sick and getting into the ICU, but unfortunately also deaths."
Age, he continued, "is the most serious risk factor and they (p.s. the elderly) are our main protection goal." "Someone over 80 if they get sick with COVID-19 has about a 25%-30% chance of dying," he said.
Referring to the tests carried out with rapid diagnostic tests, Mr. Tsiotis pointed out that "with the use of rapid antigenic tests Cyprus has done over 600,000 tests since November. The targeting is now being carried out in nursing homes where there is already a steady decline due to the early diagnosis of cases."
Contact the doctor, with the first symptoms
Citizens who show symptoms must communicate without delay with their personal doctor, stressed the head of the scientific committee, during his initial placement. 'It has been found that about two thirds of the cases identified have symptoms at diagnosis. These individuals should contact their doctor from the beginning of the symptoms to receive guidance." Symptoms are "cough, sore throat, headaches, fatigue and when there are these symptoms, individuals are treated as suspicious cases of coronavirus until proven otherwise through laboratory tests".
