Grigorijs Semjonovs, board member of Daugavpils Regional Hospital, has so far issued a number of orders requesting hospital staff to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Most technical personnel can be replaced but it will be harder to replace nurses and nurse assistants.
The hospital doesn't plan to stop working. However, the polyclinic will be shut down except for a few examinations like x-rays.
“I'm going to the clinic in an hour, a meeting is scheduled, in which I will also tell the staff that most of them go to the hospital on Monday. The fact that we will limit the clinic work will already have negative consequences for patients' health. It must be understood that this is a step that I did not want to take at all,” Semjonovs said.
The local government promises that the city's other clinics will be helping.
"At the moment, we have got the opportunity to help. And I will use the opportunity and ask people to go and get vaccinated anyway. This situation currently affects not only patients with Covid-19 but absolutely all areas. We cannot neglect them,” said Andrejs Elksniņš, Chairman of Daugavpils City Council (Harmony).
The Ministry of Health has addressed volunteers and found 54 medical practitioners – students, nurses and assistants, physician assistants.
Daugavpils hospital currently treats 203 Covid-19 patients from the entire Latgale region and outside it. The information provided by the Disease Prevention and Control Center shows that Daugavpils currently has the highest incidence of Covid-19 in Latvia. On average, in Latvia, this is around 1320 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in two weeks, while in Daugavpils this figure is significantly higher – over 2,300.
