Hospitals start to buckle under pressure
With the situation in public hospitals in Attica described as dramatic, 206 private doctors drafted by the Health Ministry are expected to present themselves at public hospitals on Tuesday.
Tellingly, there were 60 patients intubated in single rooms waiting to be admitted to intensive care units on Monday morning in Attica while that number continued to rise during the day.
Half of those patients had Covid-19, while the rest were non-Covid cases, which means that even the private sector does not have enough room to help. Already up until Monday, out of the 170 ICU beds in Attica’s private clinics, 140 had been given to the National Health System.
“The lack of staff leaves no room for optimism,” a doctor from a reference hospital told Kathimerini. “Even if we had space to treat the patients, and a stadium with beds and equipment, we do not have the staff to take care of so many patients,” the doctor added.
The requisition of doctors was announced after just 70 responded to the urgent call issued by the Health Ministry.
The requisition order will last for one month and the choice of doctors was based on their experience and age (under 60 years old).
Meanwhile, the number of intubated Covid-19 patients across Greece reached 681 on Monday, while new patient admissions came to 394.
A total of 1,707 new cases, compared to 1,514 on Sunday, were confirmed, with the total number of infections in Greece reaching 238,830. The death toll on Monday was 69, with the overall number climbing to 7,531 since the start of pandemic.
About 200 patients with coronavirus are being admitted to Attica hospitals for treatment on a daily basis.
In the fight against this third and most aggressive wave of the pandemic, the government will deploying self-testing.
The measure is expected to start in early April, with details still under consideration. What is certain is that it will be free and members of the public will be able to do four such tests a month in a simple way at home.
Speaking to Skai TV on Monday, Digital Governance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis said a platform is already ready on which people can declare any positive self-testing.
Those who test positive at home will have to have a molecular test that will confirm the result so, for example, they can take leave from work.
