Karell ambulance service mainly operates calls in the regions of Jõhvi and Kohtla-Järve and at times offers assistance in calls to Sillamäe. The idea of an additional brigade hopes to retain the quality of emergency services in line with the increasing coronavirus infection rates.

Janek Murakas, head of the Emergency Response Center's Eastern regional department, said the number of calls related to COVID-19 tripled over the last week.

"Altogether, the observation made based on the calls is that the coronavirus is starting to reach care homes. This means the rate of coronavirus-related calls can increase even more in the near future," Murakas said.

Ivetta Sakkart-Linnard, service manager of Karell ambulance service's Eastern region, said that in response to the increase in COVID-19 calls, the service decided to add another brigade to the day shift.

"Because of new possible outbreaks, we decided to proactively supplement the ambulance with another brigade in order to retain the availability of emergency services and to equalize the workloads of health care workers," she added.

Starting Friday, there are 15 ambulance brigades operating in Ida-Viru County: six in Jõhvi and Kohtla-Järve, seven in Narva and Sillamäe and one each in Kiviõli and Iisaku.

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