With all eyes on hospitals and the situation due to the rapid spread of the Omicron mutation in the community, Today, Health Minister Michael Hadjipandela is again seen by the members of the Scientific Advisory Committee.
The focus is expected to be on the measures in force announced last week by the Government and the necessary evaluation, with epidemiologists asking for credit for time in order to get a better picture of the data.
The Cyprus[/B][/B] Times[/B] understands that at this stage it is not envisaged that most experts will recommend new more stringent measures as they want to see in practice how the existing ones are working. And this is the preferred scenario.
Focus on hospitals...
The situation in state hospitals is one of the key criteria that experts take into account in order to make decisions. Despite the thousands of new cases of covid in recent weeks - which, as the scientists underline, have put new pressure on the hospitals - it is not assessed that there is a reason for panic and hasty decisions.
Characteristic are the statements of the spokesman of the OCYPY Haralambos Harilaou in the Cyprus[/B] Times[/B] that more than 300 beds have been deployed and the situation remains manageable, despite the fact that we have a rapid increase in cases due to Omicron.
Reducing quarantine in positive...
[BR][/B]The proposal to reduce quarantine to 5 days instead of the current 10 is expected to be brought back up for debate as a proportion of experts believe that due to Omicron - which is proving milder than Delta - it can now be adopted.
However, experts, we are told by a competent source, will evaluate how the reduction in quarantine has worked for health professionals and decide whether this can be implemented immediately for the general population.
Some of the experts suggest that it should be reduced to 7 days rather than 5 days.
The far-fetched scenario of the curfew...
A more stringent measure which the Cyprus Times is also far-fetched at the moment is that of a ban on night travel, a recommendation endorsed by two of the members of the Scientific Advisory Committee. This measure, however, does not meet with the approval of the majority of experts.
Asked to comment on the reports of tightening measures, and more specifically those of restricting travel, speaking to the Cyprus Times Dr. Karagiannis was clearly against it.
"At the moment and based on the evidence before us, there is no reason to take any additional measure, and there is no need to panic."
"At the moment and based on the evidence before us, there is no reason to take any additional measure, and there is no need to panic. There are measures that came into force on Monday and we need to give time to them to see variations in the numbers. We also need to see how the first few days in schools will go and then the situation will be assessed again."
At the same time, Dr. Pana, speaking to our website, believes that at this point in time we need to make a comprehensive assessment of the situation and allow time to see how the measures that were put in place a few days ago are working.
The measure for a night ban was currently ruled out by a competent source at the Ministry of Health.
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times
Source
