Coronavirus, Gallera: Lombardia purchased 700 respirators

2020-03-31T15:28:45.075Z

"To date, the Lombardy Region has purchased 10 million shoes, visors and masks, of which only 2 million have come from the National Civil Protection, 48 million gloves of various kinds, 2.7 million gowns, 270 suits, 30 0 thousand protective goggles and over 700 lung ventilators, of which only 236 from the Civil Defense ". This was stated by the Lombardy Region Welfare Councilor, Giulio Gallera, reporting to the Regional Council. "Before the emergency, in Lombardy we had 200 CPAPs. Today we are more than 9 thousand" he added. Recalling that a lot has been done "but a crazy wave has overwhelmed everything, in particular the most fragile that we have tried to protect since the middle of January in the RSA with specific indications to reduce access". Gallera has returned to the topic of virological tests to face the coronavirus emergency. "The blood tests - he explained - will be very useful at a later stage. We have started an evaluation on over 100 kits that are on the market. The first test that was evaluated by San Matteo of Pavia was performed on 37 patients - Gallera continued - and the data were compared with the result of the swab. Of the eight patients who were negative to the swab, seven were negative, but one weakly positive. Of the 29 patients who instead had a positive swab, 5 were weakly positive and negative 24. So to use them now we risk that, based on these data, more than 80% of people can say that they are negative and instead they are positive "he concluded. "Today the first 6 thousand pulse oximeters have arrived, said Gallera. In the next few days 100 thousand will arrive and we will distribute them to general practitioners to monitor fragile or at risk people". "From now on, general practitioners will be able to swab on demand. So far, the swab has only been used on symptomatic cases," said Gallera. "As far as hospital and RSA staff are concerned, the swab is made by detecting the temperature, with the obligation to carry it out if it is more than 37.5 degrees" specified Gallera.