As of Monday morning, a total of 204 COVID-19 patients have required hospitalisation
Monday morning saw a total of 204 COVID-19 patients who required hospitalisation. Last week an overall figure of 179 new cases of COVID-19 were registered by hospitals. Based on the results from wastewater monitoring in week 44, the spread of the virus is at the red risk level, to the extent of approximately 45% of the country.
In total, 2,298 new cases were added over the week, including 553 cases which were confirmed through laboratory tests and 1,745 cases which were diagnosed clinically. Juta Varjas, chief specialist at the Health Board’s Department of Infectious Diseases, said that the number of new cases had dropped by 13.1% when compared to the figures for the week before. ‘The spread of infections is showing a declining trend in all age groups, except in the 30-34 age group. The drop in new cases may partially be associated with recent changes in the testing strategy,’ explained Varjas, adding that the spread of other viral respiratory diseases is currently gathering pace.
As of Monday morning, a total of 204 people are in hospital due to COVID-19, of which three require intensive care. In total, 179 patients were hospitalised over the course of the week, including sixty-nine patients who were hospitalised due to symptomatic COVID-19. The average number of new individuals who have been hospitalised with symptomatic COVID-19 over the course of the week has decreased to 7.7 from the previous week’s figure. This week also saw nine deaths being added to the overall total, involving individuals who were aged between 50 and 98. All of those individuals had serious underlying illnesses.
During the same week fully 6,123 vaccine doses were administered, of which 154 were new vaccinations. A grand total of 484,561 people have received an additional or booster dose. Coverage of the entire Estonian population with two vaccine doses is at 63.7%.
The expert committee advises risk group members to get a second COVID-19 vaccine booster shot. According to the committee, this should include all individuals over the age of 60 and anyone who is over the age of twelve and who is at a higher level of risk of suffering a severe case of COVID-19 due to the presence of a chronic disease. It also includes care home residents, employees, and healthcare workers who are included in any risk groups. Taking the second booster shot is advised at least six months after having had the most recent dose or after having contracted COVID-19.
Based on the results from the wastewater monitoring of settlements in week 44, of all of the settlements which were sampled, a total of 45% were found to fall within the red risk level, and 35% were in the orange risk level. In averaged samples, the concentration of virus particles was the highest in those samples which had been collected from Narva, Jõhvi-Ahtme, and Peetri.
The weekly epidemiological COVID-19 overview can be found here (PDF).