Sioulis spoke about particularly extreme situations, emphasizing that “we may not have reached the point where Bergamo was found last spring, however, we are not far from it.”
He complained that there was “no planning and we will see in practice what can be done.. In the hospital with 25 ICU beds “the situation is very marginal and critical, the ICU became full on Monday night.”
“For new patients we may use portable respirators, we may have more surveillance in the wards, we will see what we do. We are in a state of war. Unfortunately, we have come to the point where we are making patient choices. It is expected that today we will face this in AHEPA,” Sioulis said.
- State broadcaster ERT reported at 3 pm that “50 portable respirators and monitors are available in Thessaloniki” and there is assurance that there will be no choice.” Who assured this? this must be the official government line.
UPDATE With several hours delay, the AHEPA management said at 4 pm that Sioulis’ statement were “fake news” adding that the hospital started the emergency duty with 7 empty beds in ICUs.
150 doctors and nurses at AHEPA infected
The problem in AHEPA is intensified even more, due to the fact that a very large number of the health workers doctors and nurses, have been infected with Covid-19.
Employees’ representatives estimate that today at AHEPA there are 150 employees who are ill or in quarantine.
The picture is more or less the same in the other hospitals of Thessaloniki, reports daily ethnos. In order to save space and beds for patients with covid-19, entire clinics are transferred from other hospitals to the military hospital in Thessaloniki and even to private clinics.
Other media report that 26 patients and staff in the biggest hospital of Greece, Evangelismos in Athens, have been tested positive to Covid-19.
Only 9 out of 50 ICU beds in the Pneumology hospital Sotiria in Athens are reportedly in operation and thus by staff relocated form other hospitals.
A doctor told earlier ERT TV, that 300 doctors are needed in ICUs, “but we don’t have them.”
Only four days ago, the Health Ministry said it would hire 300 doctors for ICUs.
Greatest pressure in Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki is still a long away from flattening the epidemiological curve, according to measurements taken by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) and the Thessaloniki Water and Sewage Company (EYATH) to detect the concentration of the SARS-CoV-2 genome in city’s wastewater.
According to an analysis of last week’s samples, the concentration of the viral genome in Thessaloniki’s sewage is still increasing rapidly, in contrast to the declining numbers of cases reported over the last few days, said the rector of AUTh and coordinator of the research team, Prof. Nikos Papaioannou.
Thessaloniki was placed in lockdown on Nov 3, four days before the whole Greece.
Extraordinary presser by Health Minister
As the situation remains very critical for the first time since the second wave of the pandemic, Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias will hold an extraordinary briefing at 06:00 p.m. today, Tuesday.
He is reportedly expected to brief about the situation in the country’s hospitals and Intensive Care Units.
PS For a change the Health Ministry would also inform the public about the Rt, marker for coronavirus spreading, that health authorities ignore on each live briefing that takes place twice a week, and has been increased to three times per week (Mon, Wed and Fri) since yesterday.
Hi
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Tony Stone
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How is it different from normal situation in greek public health system? My wife (35) come to hospital with life threating condition, that required emergency surgery. After 12 hours of waiting in hospital, she would not even get a bed, let alone schedule for surgery. We gave up and went somewhere else to had emergency surgery, she had 24 hours left.
And I am sorry, but 85+ years old are most likely going to die anyway. 60% chance they wont survive intubations, 95% chance they die within a year.