Health Board: Coronavirus special measures don't halt spread

Head of the Health Board (Terviseamet) emergency department Martin Kadai says that special procedures and quarantine do little to limit the spread of coronavirus, but do help in detecting cases more quickly.
"Today has certainly brought us a lot of lessons," Kadai said, speaking on ETV current affairs show "Aktuaalne kaamera".
One of these is that while we have we have decentralized, or distributed, crisis management thoughout the country, a health-related episode should be run centrally by the Health Board. This is the reason why we have said that quarantines, special arrangements, movement restrictions etc. are not what really helps to control the virus," said Kadai.
"The virus can be contained by quickly detecting a case and by informing and monitoring the health of those who have been in contact with the affected individual. This will best prevent the spread," he added.
Kadai stresssed that there is nothing to say that the virus, whose first case was found overnight Wednesday to Thursday, would spread
"We are talking about one case introduced today," Kadai said. The individual in question, a 34-year-old Iranian national who had traveled from Riga to Tallinn by bus Wednesday afternoon, is currently in the infectious diseases clinic at a Tallinn hospital.
As at the time of the "Aktuaalne kaamera" broadcast, a total of 19 coronavirus tests have been performed in Estonia, 18 of which have been negative.
According to Kadai, the Health Board is able to perform 60 coronavirus tests daily.
Editor: Andrew Whyte