Coronavirus Chronicle in Moldova: Anti-Records - Visible and Invisible

Marina DRAGALIN Moldova set another anti-record for the number of new COVID-19 infection cases on Wednesday: it reached 1,149 detected cases in the country per day. However, according to experts, thousands more of those contaminated remain undetected. The new type of coronavirus infection spread indicates a steady increase in positive testing and deaths from COVID-19 around the world. To date, the Crown has been confirmed within almost 40 million people, out of whom more than 1.1 million have died., a new world anti-record was set on Wednesday, reaching over 382 thousand new identified cases. The disease spread has also crossed another threshold this week in Moldova. A new anti-record was recorded on Wednesday, it reached 1149 new cases per day. The number of confirmed cases in the country has exceeded 65 thousand. About 25 thousand more residents of the republic are being under suspicion of getting infected. The infection has already killed 1,530 people. It is alarming that in a week the proportion of deaths from COVID-19 complications increased by 20% (!). There remains a high number of patients in serious condition, and those connected to mechanical ventilation devices. Despite all the protective measures taken, about 5-10% of detected infection cases still occur among medical personnel: since the beginning of the epidemic, almost 7 thousand medical workers have got contaminated. The Ministry of Health reports that 42 medical workers have died from COVID-19 complications. However, according to ex-Minister of Health Ala Nemerenco, (proved by specific examples), “The Ministry of Health is hiding data on registered deaths among medical personnel. The number of 42 who died is far from true.” Coronavirus statistics, as have practice and research showed, are generally far from accurate and reliable. Recently, the World Health Organization disseminated information that there are many unreported cases of COVID-19 around the world - the sick ones simply do not turn to health care system. According to WHO’s experts, about 10% of the population has already been infected. If we apply the WHO formula to our country, it turns out that there are about 300,000 cases of infection in Moldova therefore, about 80% (!) of cases remain unregistered. Public health expert Ala Tocarciuc believes that this situation is associated with limited primary medicine, limited testing, the influence of conspiracy theories and with pandemic existence denial, with a generally low standard of living and a deep poverty. When infected people keep ignoring symptoms, refusing to see a doctor, meantime using unconventional methods of treatment, all this leads to the uncontrolled virus spread within society. Unfortunately, people still doubt that coronavirus exists and don’t abide by basic sanitary standards. As a result, wide-scale infection centers are detected in Moldova frequently enough. A “classic” example is a story of one village where a woman spread infection among all households while she was injecting people without gloves and a mask. According to expert estimates, a village with 500 infected residents will have 100 cases with severe symptoms, 25 will be taken to intensive care, and 15 will die. And if none of these 500 people seek medical advice, the mortality can reach 10%, as it was this spring in Italy. In light of this, inaction may have far-reaching consequences, including numerous human losses. Most countries are introducing restrictive measures to slow the pandemic down and hold control of patient stream. However, a strict quarantine is unlikely to be repeated. The Moldovan people scarcely survived the spring lockdown and simply won’t be able to withstand another one. The National Statistics Bureau has recently studied the impact of the coronavirus crisis on the population. The data obtained are quite predictable: the epidemic caused impoverishment and depression among people. 17% of respondents said they were left without income or with a significantly decreased one. 8% have lost their remittances from abroad, and 40% indicated severe stress and depression. One in five residents had to save on food, people used their savings for a rainy day. “Our population is rather poor, and any crisis primarily affects day-to-day basic expenses. It is too early to say what the effects of the pandemic crisis will be, because we do not know how long it will last,” sociologist Vasile Cantarji says. Thus, on the one hand, the reinforced quarantine measures would obviously reduce contagion among the population. However, on the other hand, it is also obvious that a significant share of the population and the economy as a whole will not cope with the aftermath of such strict measures. Let’s hope that the latent spread of infection in the country’s communities will slow down and won’t provoke a humanitarian catastrophe after a nationwide ballot on November 1.