There has been an increase in hospitalizations for Covid nationwide, but not all Covid patients are present because they have Covid.
Due to the Covid wars, there are large differences in the number of hospitalizations in different parts of Finland, but as many as one in five patients included in the daily total were hospitalized for reasons other than Covid.
In other words, their Covid may not be so bad that they have to be in the hospital to treat it, but their test result was positive upon receipt for other reasons.
In Southwest Finland, hospitalizations have increased moderately, with 20 people in hospital and five in intensive care on Monday.
The Helsinki and Uusimaa hospital districts have a total of 130 patients, 21 of whom are in the intensive care unit.
"Of course you have to worry" said Chief Physician Veli-Matti Ulander from the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District. "Intensive care is one thing, but the utilization rate of beds in wards has also risen significantly and is disrupting all other aspects of hospital care."
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Intensive care units treat both vaccinated and non-vaccinated patients with an underlying disease or a weakened immune system. For example, HUS no longer reports the vaccination status of hospital patients because there are so many of them.
"For example, you can conclude from the patients in the respiratory and intensive care units that two doses of vaccine provide almost 100% protection against the need for intensive care and significantly reduce the risk of other hospital care, given that a large proportion of general care. the population has now been vaccinated," said Marjukka Myllärniemi from HUS’s Heart and Lung Center.
Oulu University Hospital OYS says that emergency care has been reduced for about a month. Chief Physician Terhi Nevala says the number of Covid patients in the hospital has varied between 15 and 32.
"There have been 19 Covid patients today and one to three patients in intensive care the previous week," said Nevala.
The statistics include those who have not been treated with Covid
The burden of care for Covid patients is reflected throughout the healthcare system and has led HUS, for example, to postpone anything but acute treatment.
However, hospital figures do not say everything. For example, in the Helsinki and Turku regions, doctors say that one in five Covid hospital patients has sought treatment from someone other than Covid and is positive only after entering the hospital.
"Patients are fairly widely distributed between different units," said Ulander. "There have been injuries, births, hospitalizations for mental health or abdominal pain in accidents that have occasionally shown a positive Covid test."
Patients have been routinely tested for Covid in Turku since early December to avoid hospital epidemics and protect vulnerable patients.
It does not matter how significant the symptoms of a Covid patient are in terms of managing the load carried by hospitals.
"From the hospital’s point of view, the same resources are used in any case," said Harri Marttila, Chief Physician of Turku University Hospital. "Does the patient have a significant, symptomatic and severe Covid infection that has brought him to hospital, or is it an occasional diagnosis."