A 90 year old man died in Saaremaa from Covid-19

During the night, after testing positive a 90-year-old man died in Saaremaa, at the Saaremaa Valss care home, from complications of Covid-19.

“This is a very sad moment for the whole of Saaremaa. My deepest condolences to the family of the departed,” said Madis Kallas, mayor of Saaremaa. “In this difficult time, we are here to support all the islanders and do our best to support our community.”

According to Kadri Juhkam, head of the western regional department of the Health Board, testing of residents and employees will continue at the Saaremaa care home. “We would like to extend our condolences to the family of the departed,” said Kadri Juhkam. She added that the elderly are a risk group for coronavirus, and special attention needs to be paid to this age group. At the Saaremaa Valss care home, 18 employees and 78 residents were tested for the coronavirus, and the results of three residents from the same ward came back positive. At the Kuressaare Hospital care home, 48 residents were tested, 2 results came back positive. The employee’s analyses are currently being tested for the coronavirus.
 

Over 1000 coronavirus tests were analysed in the past 24 hours, 39 new positive cases added

Over the past 24 hours, over 1000 coronavirus tests were analysed in Estonia, and 39 tests (4%) came back positive.

According to the population register, over the 24 hour period, the highest number of coronavirus cases were found in Saare County (24), followed by Harju County (10). Two new positive cases were found in Pärnu County and Tartu County, one additional case was found in Võru County.

In total, nearly 10400 coronavirus tests have been performed in Estonia, of which 679 have shown positive results. Results of the analyses show that the highest numbers of infected persons were found in the above 60 (30%) and 40-49 (22%) age groups. The 50-59 age group makes up 20% of those found to be infected and the 30-39 age group 17%.

As of last evening, 56 patients require hospitalisation in Estonia due to the novel coronavirus, of whom 10 are in intensive care and in critical condition. 20 patients have recovered from the disease and two people have died.

Coronavirus risk groups include persons with chronic illnesses and elderly people. To protect the risk groups, the Health Board recommendations are as follows:

• It is strictly forbidden to visit care homes, because it endangers the health of the residents.
• Avoiding contact between people is of utmost importance, because otherwise it is not possible to contain the spread of the virus.
• Additionally, in the coming weeks, moving residents from one care home to another should be avoided, as well as taking in new residents. Elderly persons in need of care should turn to their local government to receive home care services.

The Health Board, the Ministry of Social Affairs, and the National Social Insurance Board have developed guidelines on how to act if infection is suspected in case of a care home resident or employee. The guideline has been sent to all social welfare institutions. The Social Insurance Board is in constant contact with the care homes and ready to act on a case-by-case basis.

Over the past weeks, the Social Insurance Board in cooperation with the Health Board has actively been working on informing nursing homes and explaining how following hygiene requirements is of utmost importance in preventing infection. It is the responsibility of every service provider to guarantee that all recommendations and measures would be applied to the maximum extent.

Due to the emergency situation in Estonia, the prohibition to visit applies to all social welfare institutions, hospitals and prisons until the preliminary date of 1 May 2020, unless otherwise decided by the government. Additional information is available on the Health Board’s dedicated website and on the Health Board Facebook page. Questions about the emergency situation are answered on the government website.

On the collection of statistics

As of 26 March, the Health Board started publishing the results based on data from the health information system TIS. Previously, the Health Board was not able to submit such queries to the health information system, however, using TIS became necessary because of the number of laboratories that now have testing capacity and because a private sector partner has been included in the work.