During the interview, Lenert stated that two times over the past months already, people expected that the country was on the brink of a second wave before the daily rate of new infections balanced itself out again. This was why, she explained, no one could have known that the virus would spread so rapidly this time around, despite the projections.
Dr Schmit added that the shift to autumn weather with increasingly rainy days and less sunshine was another explanation for the rapid increase in new cases.
The virus is once again increasingly on people's minds
The Director of the Federation of Hospitals, Paul Junck, called for the general public to show solidarity with hospital staff. Junck urged people to comply with the measures in place, stating that even if 85% respected them the other 15% could lead to the situation spiralling out of control. Lenert agreed, adding that government tried to reach those people specifically with its messaging over the past days. The minister explained that people forgot about the virus to some extend as the national figures were not as worrying anymore. However, now that more and more people personally know others who are directly affected by the disease once again, awareness of Covid-19 was on the rise once more.
Why wait until now to introduce stricter measures?
When asked why the government did not already announce stricter measures during the press conference last Saturday, Lenert defended the decision by referring to facts. The figures and projections were different on Saturday and Wednesday, and due to the virus' tendency to spread very quickly, it was important to act step-by-step, the minister explained.
Does Luxembourg have enough hospital workers?
Dr Schmit, the President of the Doctor's Association (AMMD), stated that Luxembourg's staffing level was currently reduced due to cases of isolation and quarantine. In addition, he continued, it was a well-known problem that the Grand Duchy only has a very small number of doctors, which was why this new wave could turn out to be a completely different challenge compared to the first one.
Junck stated that as of right now, the situation in Luxembourg's hospitals was still under control.
The first goal was to avoid a full shutdown of non Covid related treatments in hospitals, as was the case during the first wave, due to the damage this decision caused by delaying or indefinitely postponing treatments for other patients. Hospitals will do everything they can in order to keep their treatment offer as extensive as possible.
No plans for a centralised Covid hospital
Junck rejected the AMMD's idea of creating a centralised Covid structure, i.e. a sort of "Covid hospital", stating that a re-organisation of hospitals was not the way to go right now as hospitals were already busy dealing with the situation at hand.
Facilities like the advanced care centres, which were used during the first wave, would only come back once they were needed, which was currently not the case. Lenert explained that this time, the idea was to keep treating people within the normal structures.
People should reduce their visits to hospitals and nursing homes
Junck stated that while generally speaking, a hospital was a very safe place, they were nevertheless not islands either. The recent spike in new cases would thus also require an adaption of visiting recommendations.
On her part, Lenert called for people to reduce their visits to nursing homes and hospitals for the foreseeable future. However, individual facilities would still be granted a certain level of flexibility which would allow them to adapt to the number of in-house cases. At the moment, three facilities were more critically affected with the number of new infections reaching double digits, the minister explained.
Staff recruitment remains a core issue
While hiring new employees remained a core issue, hospitals could not simply hire at their leisure as they had to stick to a fixed budget granted to them by the National Health Insurance Fund (CNS). Junck explained that there was a methodology in place, and a meeting was scheduled for Saturday to discuss how the issue could best be resolved.
The Grand Duchy had also triggered a discussion in neighbouring countries due to its substantial recruiting efforts among their residents after the first wave. Lenert stated that this was a sensitive issue while Dr Schmit added that it would be the wrong approach to hire even more staff abroad. An alternative would be to reorganise staff internally, which was a potentially promising solution, according to the guests.
