Filenews 1 March 2021
Ready, says the Organization of State Health Services (CSO), to address the possibility of a third wave of coronavirus, by formulating a revised plan to develop more beds and recruit the personnel it needs, but calling on the public to be very careful and to take all necessary self-protection measures so as not to worsen the situation.
In a statement, OKY Spokesman Charalambos Charilaou said that "the Agency has been properly prepared, with a revised plan to deal with a possible third wave for coronavirus and is on alert."
This project has been presented so far to the Cyprus Medical Association, the Cyprus Association of Private Hospitals and representatives of the doctors' and nurses' guilds, and tomorrow it will present it to the Minister of Health Konstantinos Ioannou.
This plan, Mr. Charilaou said, takes into account the worst-case scenario, with a large number of cases. It provides for the development of more than 300 beds in common wards and around 65 active beds in intensive care units.
"The plan clearly states that the beds will be developed in each hospital and what staff will staff these departments. As far as nurses are concerned, the number of other departments will be reduced to save more staff and for doctors the plan includes recruiting private doctors to help tackle the pandemic," he said.
He noted that the development of the beds, in addition to the 200 that are now, provides for the further creation of 58 beds in the General Hospital of Larnaca and 48 beds in the General Hospital of Paphos.
Mr Harilaou said there is accumulated experience of the Agency, which is a useful tool in our hands to deal with a possible third wave or anything else related to the pandemic.
"Several infrastructures have been created, enough staff have been trained, modern equipment has been purchased to deal with such situations and we hope that in the future we will be much more ready than we were in the first phase of the pandemic," he added.
Asked about this, he said that the third wave is estimated around mid-March, if and when there is one.
With the relaxes and increased cases
Mr Harilaou said that after any relaxes there is expected to be an increased number of cases in the community, resulting in increased admissions to public hospitals.
"The encouraging thing is that 75% of the residents of the nursing homes and their staff have been vaccinated and in addition 70% of people over the age of 80 have been vaccinated again, where we are not expected to have many admissions from these specific groups as we had in December, which introduced cases into nursing homes. This is complacent but we need to be vigilant, to have planning in case we need to respond adequately," he noted.
Respecting the fatigue of the world, he added, we invite you to wear a mask, to keep your distance, to reduce your contacts, so that we do not allow us to have a setback with all those unpleasant consequences.
Source: CYPE
