We predicted in June that there would be a summer wave of COVID-19 – said Dr. Paweł Grzesiowski, Chief Sanitary Inspector, in “Fakty po Faktach” on TVN24. He added that there is “confirmation from three sources” that we are dealing with another wave of this disease. He also listed the symptoms that are currently occurring in infected people.
– What is happening with COVID right now is not a surprise. We predicted in June that there would be a summer wave of COVID. We talked about preparing for this moment as well, because a new strain, a new variety, is starting to circulate – Grzesiowski explained in “Fakty po Faktach”.
– Secondly, our immunity is decreasing after the last wave, which we finished around February, March. And we don't have vaccinations. Therefore, these three combined facts lead to another wave – he added.
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Dr. Grzesiowski: we have a new wave of COVID-19TVN24
Dr. Grzesiowski: We have confirmation from three sources that there is another wave of COVID-19
When asked about the scale of this holiday wave of illnesses, he replied that to estimate it, “we can rely on three different data sets.”
– First of all, (they are) data that goes into the healthcare system. They are either reported by doctors, or test results are reported by laboratories and based on this we can say that there are more sick people. We have several thousand such reports daily – said Grzesiowski. Asked by how much such reports should be multiplied to obtain the actual number of cases in the entire country, he replied that “we can easily multiply it by 10, or maybe even by 15”.
– Secondly, a completely independent set of data is number of tests purchased in pharmacies. This is a very good indicator. People simply go to the pharmacy, buy a test when they feel bad, when they suspect they are sick. And to this we add, (…), already nationwide metadata on the number of visits due to acute infections. And they have also increased in the last two weeks – he pointed out.
– And there is another database that says – very selectively for now – that we see more virus in sewage. This is irrefutable evidence that someone is excreting this virus into the sewage. Well, we, the people. So we have confirmation from three different sources that this is another wave of COVID – he continued.
Dr. Grzesiowski: we are still dealing with the omicron variant
Dr. Grzesiowski, describing the specificity of the new wave of infections, said that we are still dealing with the omicron variant, which – as he added – “changed the face of COVID”, causing a milder course of the disease, but at the same time causing the so-called “distant effects” of COVID-19.
He pointed out that patients who had recently come to him complained of symptoms such as: fever, muscle pain and very severe weakness. – However, there is no severe pneumonia, there is no pneumonia at all, but there is a cough, sore throat, headache, muscle pain and with good immunity after four or five days this infection goes away. And we could consider it a mild form of COVID and that would be the end of it, if not for the distant effects that we do not know who will experience – he pointed out.
What about new vaccinations?
Grzesiowski was also asked about when it will be possible to get vaccinated against the new wave of COVID-19. – New vaccines have been reported to the European Medicines Agency and we are waiting for registration. They were reported somewhere in early July or late June. The analysis of whether we can already introduce the vaccine to the market takes about a month, so we are counting on it being available for purchase in September. And when will it be administered? Probably in October – said the Chief Sanitary Inspector.
Main image source: TVN24