Polish Health Minister Adam Nedzelski looks tortured. The decision to introduce a new strict blockade seems difficult for him and his colleagues in the cabinet, BGNES reports.
“These are huge costs, but they protect us from even more terrible and huge costs,” Nedzelski told the Polsat news channel after announcing the government’s decision on Thursday.
A lock was introduced in Poland on Saturday, which will last until April 9. Schools and shops are closing again.
The introduction of curfews or even stricter restrictions on freedom of movement is being discussed: it is possible to limit walks only to the area close to housing. The Polish government reserves the right to tighten the lock if necessary.
This is a necessary measure. Poland is currently experiencing a sharp increase in coronavirus infections. On Friday, the country’s health ministry announced 25,998 new cases, up 38 percent from last Friday. But this is no exception for this region. In the Czech Republic, the seven-day infection rate per 1 million people is 976, in Hungary – 738. This is 7-10 times higher than in Germany.
WHO experts are extremely concerned. They point out that the number of new cases, the number of hospitalizations and deaths in Central Europe are at the highest levels in the world. The eastern part of the EU – Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, members of the Visegrad Group – have reached the edge of their own capabilities.
Many hospitals are fully completed and there are more and more serious cases, including among young people. And nowhere else in the EU is there such a mortality as a consequence of the coronavirus as in the East.
Despite the fact that the Czech Republic seems to be reaching its peak frequency, the number of hospitalizations and deaths is not decreasing. No rapid improvement is expected. As for Poland, researchers at the University of Warsaw have concluded that the country’s healthcare system could collapse in April with unpredictable consequences.
On Thursday, the Gazeta Wiborcza newspaper reported that only nine beds for patients with Kovid-19 remained in Warsaw.
Too high mortality has reached unimaginable proportions. In November 2020, twice as many people died in Poland than in November 2019, ie. before the coronavirus outbreak. On 31 January this year, the death rate was too high in Slovakia at 50% and in the Czech Republic at 39%. The average mortality rate for seven days per 1 million inhabitants is 16.7 in Hungary, 14.9 in Slovakia, 19.2 in the Czech Republic. This is about ten times more than in Germany.
In Hungary, which uses the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, among others, without permission from the European Medicines Commission, there are currently 18,000 deaths – while less than 10 million people live in the country.
Although active progress (compared to Germany) with vaccination, countries such as Poland or Hungary are unable to bring the pandemic under control. First, the number of deaths remains high. There are a number of reasons for such a high mortality rate.
Jaroslav Fleger, a Czech parasitologist and biologist dealing with evolution, first mentioned government policy. “Authorities have long mitigated the danger of the coronavirus and then began to require citizens to abide by the rules. This discrepancy has caused confusion and irritation among the people. The government has simply lost people’s trust,” Fleger said in an interview with The Welt.
An authoritative scientist, a professor at Charles University in Prague, has repeatedly predicted the course of the pandemic very accurately, gaining great respect in the Czech Republic and now appearing frequently in the media when it comes to the coronavirus. Everything he says about the actions of the Czech government can be said about the actions of the governments of other countries in the region.
In Hungary, the opposition claims that Viktor Orbán’s cabinet is losing the trust of voters because it is using the coronavirus crisis to strengthen its own power through restrictive measures. In Slovakia, the failed actions of the country’s leadership during the pandemic have recently provoked conflict within the coalition.
Last but not least, this happened because Prime Minister Igor Matovich bought the Russian vaccine on his own initiative. And in Poland, politicians from the ruling Law and Justice Party are constantly downplaying the dangers of the virus.
As a result of these chaotic practices in all four countries, many citizens have long since stopped adhering to recommended hygiene practices. In the Czech Republic, the hard blockade did not have the desired effect. The media constantly reports on illegal parties.
Young and middle-aged people have contributed to the spread of the coronavirus among their fellow citizens. It is obvious that the increase in morbidity inevitably leads to an increase in the incidence of the disease and deaths.
Unofficial morbidity data are much higher than official statistics. The governments of Slovakia and Poland may not even have a clear idea of the real epidemiological situation in the countries themselves. The tests are few, and in some cases, for example in Poland, the percentage of positive results is 30%.
Many sick people do not inform the authorities for fear of losing the opportunity to go to work. Experts suggest that real numbers are 5-10 times higher than official ones.
According to conservative estimates, about 32,000 people get sick every day in Hungary, about 50,000 in the Czech Republic and about 125,000 in Poland. At the same time, no one has been seriously monitoring the contacts of sick people for a long time.
Incidentally, the British virus strain B.1.1.7 has long spread to Eastern Europe. However, it is more contagious and probably more often leads to complications. “This is due to the spread of the virus, with the large number of new infections overloading the health system. And we are also dealing with a much more aggressive mutation of the virus,” confirmed parasitologist Fleger.
The third point is essential. Health systems in the region are underfunded, hospitals are underdeveloped and understaffed.
Since the Visegrad countries joined the EU in 2004, thousands of doctors have left Poland or Hungary, and many professionals have left their homeland immediately after graduation, going to Germany and the Netherlands for higher salaries.
According to the EU’s statistical office, Eurostat currently has 238 doctors per 100,000 inhabitants in Poland, the lowest figure in the entire European Union. In Hungary, this number is 338. This is not enough to successfully confront crisis situations of the current scale.
In Germany, there are 431 doctors per 100,000 inhabitants. When the incidence will decrease is still impossible to say. National governments are extending or tightening their conclusions and hope that vaccinations will soon play a positive role.
If the current wave of morbidity is the last, then it will be most severe for Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.
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