As of Monday morning, a total of 246 COVID-19 patients have required hospitalisation
Monday morning saw a grand total of 246 COVID-19 patients who required hospitalisation. Last week, an overall figure of 218 new cases of COVID-19 were registered by hospitals. Based on the results from wastewater monitoring in week 42, the spread of the virus is at the red risk level, to the extent of approximately 61% of the country.
Juta Varjas, chief specialist at the Health Board’s Department of Infectious Diseases, said that 3,219 cases were added last week, of which 1,055 were laboratory-confirmed and 2,164 had been clinically diagnosed. ‘The increase in the number of elderly patients may, over the next few weeks, affect the overall number of people who are hospitalised due to COVID-19,’ explained Varjas, adding that the number of outbreaks which had been registered with healthcare institutions and the number of infection cases which had been found within the respective institution has remained at the same level.
As of Monday morning, a total of 246 people are in hospital due to COVID-19, of which five require intensive care. In total, 108 patients were hospitalised over the course of the week. The number of new individuals who were hospitalised with symptomatic COVID-19 increased from 8.7 to thirteen during the same week. That week also saw ten deaths being added to the overall total, involving individuals who were aged between 79 and 97. All of those individuals had serious underlying illnesses.
During the same week 5,281 vaccine doses were administered, of which 185 were new vaccinations. A grand total of 483,322 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 a chronic disease, as well as care home residents and employees, and healthcare workers 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 42, the spread of viruses in Estonian wastewater has remained at the same level. Of all of the settlements which were sampled, a total of 61% of settlements were found to fall within the red risk level and 32% were in the orange risk level.
The weekly epidemiological COVID-19 overview can be found here (PDF).