State of emergency announced in Latvia's healthcare system

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Health Minister Daniels Pavļuts told newswire LETA on October 7 that it had been decided to announce a state of emergency in Latvia's healthcare system.

State Operative Medical Commission (VOMK) decided to impose the technical measure so that medical authorities will have more autonomy in handling their resources to provide the necessary medical assistance to Covid-19 sufferers and other urgent patients.

The state of emergency in Latvia's health care system was first declared at the start of December 2020 and lifted July 2021.

As of Thursday, October 7, the morbidity level in Latvia has reached an all-time high.

At a press briefing on Thursday, epidemiologist of the Disease Prevention and Control Center (SPKC) Jurijs Perevoščikovs reported on current morbidity rates and forecasts for the coming weeks, explaining that at the end of the month, the number of daily identified Covid-19 cases can reach 3,400, as the number of cases doubles every 12 days. This means that over 2,300 Covid-19 cases could be detected on October 19.

Perevoščikovs also said that the virus spread could be braked by reducing the contacts face-to-face by 40% to 60%. However, it will not have an immediate effect, as there are currently enough Covid-19-infected people who are “already on their way to hospital”.

A member of the Board of the Riga East Clinical University Hospital, Professor Haralds Plaudis said at the press conference that the current load of Covid-19 beds in the hospital amounts to 94%, so the number of beds will have to be increased at the expense of other profiles, consequently, the Eastern Hospital will discontinue a series of scheduled services from 11 October, but will retain those services that cannot be delayed, such as oncological patient care.

 

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