Savona, new outbreak at the San Paolo hospital: 12 cases in medicine, suspended hospitalizations

Savona – The coronavirus has returned to besiege a department of the San Paolo hospital. A new cluster was discovered yesterday in the Medicine 2 area of ​​Savona, aggravating one of the darkest days of the second Covid wave, as it was marked by the death of ten patients in the province. The evening bulletin issued by Alisa reported the deaths of eight people in the Albenga hospital and two more in the one in Pietra. The youngest was 73, the oldest 97, but all surrendered to the virus between 13 and 19 December, making the ferocity of Covid even more evident.

The battle continues at the San Paolo, where they emerged just yesterday 12 new infections in Medicine 2: patients are asymptomatic, but hospitalizations have been suspended and swabs have been taken. In addition there would also be a positive doctor. The discovery caused a backlash in the department headed by Lionello Parodi, which, however, reassures: «We do not stop. Unfortunately we are facing a sneaky virus, we have tightened all security measures, but we are surrounded. The swabs to which patients and staff are constantly subjected made it possible to immediately identify positive cases and to intervene promptly. Probably the virus was activated in the so-called “window period” of incubation, the one that elapses between a swab and the next control ».

So a test carried out on a person who has just been attacked by the virus it can give a negative result, but its presence emerges a few days later, in the following check. The first two positivity, in fact, were highlighted thanks to the swabs that are carried out, as per protocol, at the time of discharging each patient. A standard procedure in the hospital by now, precisely to avoid that, after hospitalization for other reasons, a person returns home or to a facility for the elderly taking the virus with them. But this time, instead of reassuring, it highlighted two infections.

So the ASL has triggered the safety device which provides for a new round of tampons to all the patients and to the staff who have access to the hospital rooms, including that of outsourced companies. The other 10 cases were identified from the investigations. “The patients involved, all asymptomatic, were transferred to hospitalization areas reserved for patients with suspected or already confirmed infection – the Local Health Authority specified – This situation made it necessary to immediately sanitize the hospital rooms, operating spaces and common areas.

In addition, the preventive isolation of patients who tested negative for the screening swab was ordered. All the patients discharged in the previous days were also traced, for which home isolation was triggered ».

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