In Romania, the number of newly diagnosed coronavirus infections has almost doubled in a week, which according to experts is related to the appearance of a new subtype of the omicron virus strain, the Hotnews.ro news portal wrote on Friday, presenting the weekly report of the Romanian Institute of Public Health (INSP).
In the last week, 1,256 new infections were identified in Romania, which represents an 82 percent increase compared to the previous week. One third of the patients did not get the Covid infection for the first time.
In the statement, five deaths are attributed to Covid, but all victims suffered from other diseases as well. Three of them were vaccinated against coronavirus.
The advance of the coronavirus is felt primarily in the wards of epidemic hospitals, where more and more patients with respiratory symptoms have been arriving in recent weeks – explained Chief Medical Officer Simin Aysel Florescu, director of the Victor Babes Epidemic Hospital in Bucharest, who was interviewed by Hotnews.
These are usually patients who also have chronic diseases or elderly people who seek help from doctors due to moderately severe or even severe forms of the disease and need hospital treatment, said the chief physician.
He added: the proportion of young people among patients diagnosed with the coronavirus is relatively low, in their case the risks are also smaller and they usually only need symptomatic treatment. According to his assumption, there are many infected people who are not officially diagnosed with Covid, because the disease manifests itself only as a cold and those affected do not go to the doctor.
According to the hospital director, the number of Covid-19 cases has increased across Europe in recent weeks, which can be attributed to the new sub-variant of the omicron strain, marked JN1. The specialist added: like the previous sub-variants of omicron, the JN1 only causes an increase in the number of cases, but there is no sign that the course of the disease is more severe compared to the previous variants.
“It can easily be confused with the flu: it usually only causes a cough, muscle pain, and feeling unwell for a day or two. However, in more serious cases, respiratory failure and pneumonia can also occur.”
explained the chief physician.
Since the start of the coronavirus epidemic in 2020, more than 3.5 million SARS-CoV-2 infections have been registered in Romania, and almost 69,000 people infected with the coronavirus have died.
Source: propeller.hu
