LUSA.
Temperatures drop and concerns over what will happen to the pandemic increase. These are some of the answers to questions that the first covid-19 winter may raise:
What influence do the coldest seasons have on the transmission of viral diseases?
Autumn and winter increase the transmission of viruses, as seen annually in the seasonal flu season, which runs between November and March and has peaked between December and February. Cold weather provides ideal conditions for virus particles to travel through the air. The human body also sees reduced defense mechanisms, such as mucous membranes, which dry and more easily let harmful particles through.
What increased risk can the fall / winter season pose in the covid-19 pandemic?
The new coronavirus will “compete” in the coming months with seasonal flu. It is usually a time when the demand for emergencies increases because of the flu, other respiratory problems or cardiovascular diseases. To this is added the probability of the increase in cases of covid-19, enhanced by the cold and the tendency that people will have to concentrate in interior spaces and without natural ventilation, ideal conditions for contagions. As Atlantic Magazine director Johns Hopkins of the Sanitary Center of the American hospital, Tom Inglesby, told Atlantic magazine last July, “As the cold gets worse, activities and people will start to retreat inland, which unfortunately increases the risk of transmission and the risk of super-outbreaks “.
Another challenge is the ability to make accurate diagnoses, since covid-19 and flu have some symptoms in common, such as breathing difficulties, cough or fever.
Can the response to the pandemic decrease the intensity of seasonal flu?
The individual measures and behaviors recommended to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus – physical distance, use of a mask indoors, frequent hand washing and respiratory etiquette – have an influence on the transmission of flu. This was seen during this year’s seasonal flu season in the southern hemisphere, which had little expression in the months between April and September in countries like Australia, Argentina or South Africa, although there were peaks of covid-19 that coincided with days lower temperatures.
How did the health authorities prepare for autumn / winter?
Regardless of the success in containing contagions of covid-19, with Portugal behind Spain, Italy or France in number of cases and deaths per million inhabitants, the negative impact of the pandemic on the National Health Service (SNS) is reflected in more of a million unanswered consultations, almost a quarter of surgeries have been postponed and oncology treatments and diagnoses have been known to be affected, among other negative impacts of paralysis in extra-covid health services, the real consequences of which are immeasurable.
Recovering all the delays is one of the priorities of the autumn / winter plan announced by the Ministry of Health, in which the need for “health care provision” non-covid-19, whether scheduled or urgent “appears in third place, after the concern about “the increased incidence” of the disease and the increased demand for services caused by seasonal flu and other respiratory infections.
With regard to the capacity of the SNS to face the demand, namely for respiratory conditions, the number of ventilators increased from about 1,100 to 1,800. In the Intensive Care sector, the goal is to reach an average of 9.4 beds per 100,000 inhabitants at the end of the year. Since March, almost 5,000 professionals have been hired in the NHS, including doctors, nurses and technicians.
A strategy for carrying out tests that quickly separates patients with covid-19 from other patients is also defined.
The plan also establishes the strengthening of stocks of medicines, medical devices, protective equipment and tests in health units, as well as the creation of reserves of these materials.
How does the Government propose to look beyond covid-19?
It is defined that surveillance of chronic patients, oncological screening of vision, maternal and child health, vaccination, family planning and oral health are essential activities that must be continued for ten million citizens, in the midst of a pandemic that in six months reached about 72,000 people, 2.7 percent of whom died.
One of the novelties is that in the organization of health services, a non-covid-19 “mission team” is created, with elements from each regional health administration, which should focus on everything beyond covid-19.
Your commitment should be to create contingency plans to resume and maintain the programmed activity that was dismantled with the pandemic.
The plan also provides for hospital units “covid-19 free”, where cases of contagion with the new coronavirus are not forwarded.
To face seasonal flu, the NHS vaccination plan was also anticipated and extended. Vaccines start from September 28 for the most priority population groups: residents of nursing homes, health professionals, social workers and, for the first time this year, pregnant women. As of October 15, the second phase of vaccines begins, aimed at people aged 65 and over and chronically ill.
