Health workers praised,
HEALTH workers have been telling of a time of “great stress, fear, sacrifice and love,” as they fought to control the Covid-19 outbreak.
Some told how they never saw their children for 70 days, working for 36 hours without a break and sometimes spending the night inside the state hospital laboratory.
The lab workers were the first to be called upon when a German tourist tested positive for the virus – the first ever positive case in the country- on March 10. As the public got to grips with instructions to frequently wash their hands, wear masks, follow the social distancing rules and refrain from going into crowded areas, these heroic workers were working with the virus.
Speaking to TAK News Agency, Lefkoşa state hospital chief physician assistant, Dr Sonuç Büyük explained that they had carried out 25,000 speed tests and 5,000 PCR tests in the state hospitals of Lefkoşa, Gazimağusa, Girne and Lefke’s Cengiz Topel hospital laboratories.
“The PCR test is a diagnosis, a speedtest is a screening. If a patient tests positive in the PCR test, they were taken into quarantine, where they would undergo further blood tests and a tomography of the lungs.
“Necessary planning was made for patients who displayed symptoms of coughing and temperature and who had pneumonia of the lungs, and treatment started.
“Patients who did not display any symptoms whose radiology scans showed as clear, would still be taken into quarantine for observation. Children under 18 were treated following consultation with a child doctor.
“Speed-tests (antibody) – which only take 10-15 minutes — show the degree of defence the immune system has against the virus, whether the patient has had the illness, or is having the virus. It also gives information on immunity and the viral levels. When used together with a PCR test, it greatly gives an indication of the patient’s diagnosis.”
She said that “the community has been comforted” because of the tests, adding that the “speed tests are fast, cheap and practical”.
She warned on the need for “everyone to be cautious until the virus has been stamped out to zero level across the world . . . we need to be vigilant and not let go of the measures, particularly if the border checkpoints are opened,” she said.
Cyprus Turkish Medical Workers’ Union head, Özlem Gürküt, issuing a separate written statement, called for a countrywide “policy” and a “road map” to be introduced.
“If this is not done, there won’t be only health losses, but also economic and social losses too.
“Almost everyone in the community is without protection from the virus. There is a need through individually taken measures, to adapt and learn to making the measures a way of living.”
She said that while the pandemic was “speedily decreasing,” worldwide figures showed that humanity was still some way off from being protected against Covid-19 through any form of immunity or vaccine.
She said the immune level in the TRNC against the virus was 0.036 per cent, compared with New York which was 19.9 per cent, London 17.5 per cent, Madrid 11.3 per cent, Boston 9.9 per cent, Stockholm 7.3 per cent, and Barcelona 7.1 per cent.
Meanwhile President Mustafa Akıncı warned against complacency. During a visit to Lefkoşa market with ‘first lady’ Meral and Lefkosa mayor, Mehmet Harmancı, he said ‘some’ people were adhering to the rules, but added: “It is also a reality that some citizens have been unable to especially wear masks. There is a belief that ‘the virus has ended, nothing can happen to me.’ I think this is the greatest danger that awaits us.
“We do not like masks however we have to for a period of time learn to live with the mask- distancing-hygiene trio. There seems to be no other choice. What is needed during these difficult days is for measures, understanding and solidarity,” he said.