According to data from the Health Board, there are more than 1,000 active cases in Ida-Viru County as of Wednesday. More than half of these infected people live in the city of Narva, ETV's daily affairs show "Aktuaalne kaamera" reported on Wednesday.

City government has closed culture and sports establishments and has extended distance learning for hobby groups until December 13, all measures to alleviate the spread of the novel coronavirus in the region.

The situation is complicated at Narva Hospital, carrying 52 patients in its infection department with the number also containing 36 health care workers.

"As of right now, we are managing unless there is an unexpected growth in stationary patients. We closed down all scheduled treatment in stationary, because we were not able to cover the COVID departments with our staff. The coronavirus departments need double the staff of normal departments," said Pille Letjuka, chief doctor of Narva Hospital.

There are 40 beds for COVID-19 patients at Narva Hospital. That number could be doubled, but there is just not enough staff.

"We need to double our nurses, meaning a total of 18 nurses, right now. If a doctor were to go down for some reason now, we would be in trouble. We are managing more or less currently. All the doctors working in COVID departments are overloaded," Letjuka noted.

The emergency situation council will begin an extraordinary hiring action for health care workers in order to alleviate the issues at Narva Hospital.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!