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There are very few coronavirus tests performed in Poland. In terms of the number of inhabitants, we are in the last place in the European Union and in the 98th place in the world. What’s more, only some of the people who have a referral take the test. We don’t want to test or we can’t because of too long queues to swab points.
- In the past day, 54,5 thousand were recorded in Poland. new COVID-19 infections
- This number, according to doctors and analysts, should be much larger. Even a quarter of a million Poles are in the gray zone – they received a test referral, but they did not get tested
- People avoid testing because they are afraid of stigmatization and the fact that they will not be able to go to work – believes Dr. Michał Sutkowski
- If we were to do more tests, we would have a more approximate picture of the situation – says prof. Robert Flisiak
- More information can be found on the Onet homepage
A very small number of COVID-19 tests in Poland
Many doctors and analysts have long been saying that the scale of coronavirus infections in Poland is much greater than the official data of the Ministry of Health provide. This is due, for example, to a very small number of tests performed in our country. According to data from the Ministry of Health, just over 31 million tests for the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus have been carried out in Poland since the beginning of the pandemic.
This is much less than in Belgium or Portugal, i.e. in countries with almost four times smaller population. In Denmark, which has less than 6 million inhabitants, these tests were carried out twice as many as in Poland (data from the Our World in Data website), and in Spain, which has 25 percent. more inhabitants than Poland – over 82 million. We are in the last place in the European Union when it comes to tests per population. A statistical Pole has tested for COVID-19 0,74 times since the beginning of the pandemic, and a Cypriot – 23 times. Globally, we are ranked 98th in this statistic (according to worldometers.info data).
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– People avoid testing because they are afraid of stigmatization and the fact that they will not be able to go to work – said Dr. Michał Sutkowski, president of Warsaw Family Physicians some time ago.
Not everyone approaches the COVID-19 test
The official number of tests carried out in Poland is only a part of what should be done. Data from the Ministry of Health from prosperous days indicate over 100. (On February 2, it was 175) daily tests. And the number of referrals issued by POZs is at the level of 50 thousand. However, these are only a part of the referrals issued each day.
«It is very easy to check how many referrals have been issued by GPs, these data are available in the EWP system, just one click away. This number does not exceed 10 percent. The rest are tests from hospitals and drive-thru. There are simply more infections »wrote Dr. Paweł Grzesiowski on Twitter a few months ago.
According to Gazeta Wyborcza, citing data from the government EWP system, on January 24, 232 thousand tickets were issued. referrals, and tests were conducted 142 thousand. In the following days, this difference was also significant. January 25 at 214 thousand 173,4 thousand orders were carried out. of tests, a day later, 179 thousand were carried out. from 212 thou. referrals.
In total, from January 24 to February 1, 1 thousand zlotys were issued. test referrals, and the official results in the database appeared 669 million 1 thousand. This means that almost 250 people were not tested for the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus despite the referral issued.
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Why is this happening? There are two reasons. Some people do not want to be tested. – The person who is referred for the test is in quarantine on a vending machine. Maybe some people prefer to sit at home for seven days and rest, instead of waiting in the queue for a test, and then go to work with a negative result, says a person working in the Sanitary and Epidemiological Station.
Mr. Arkadiusz wrote about similar reasons some time ago in a letter to MedTvoiLokona. «One of my friends who fell ill about two weeks ago runs a company. He had the typical coronavirus symptoms of breathlessness, weakness and coughing. I asked why he didn’t go to the doctor for a test. He replied that I must have been stupid, what for? In order to be insulated? So that the police pull up to the house? He said he wouldn’t leave the company alone for 10 days. He went to work with such symptoms, he met with people. Then his employee had the same symptoms »- informed our reader.
The second group of people are those who want to get tested, but nowadays, due to the increasing queues to the swab points, they fail to do so.
– The line was mega long. We stood patiently until the very end. At 19.40 p.m. a girl approached, informing that unfortunately they had finished the swabs for that day and they could not perform any more. We have to turn back and come tomorrow. When we turned back, the line was still huge. I am frustrated and embittered, with a sick child, we had to wait several hours in the car. We did not arrange anything – said Justyna on Radio 90 in Rybnik.
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– If we were to do more tests – like France or Denmark – we would have a more approximate picture of the situationbut nowhere do the statistics reflect reality. There is no point in analyzing the number of new infected every day – says in an interview with “Wyborcza” prof. Robert Flisiak, head of the Polish Society of Epidemiologists and Doctors of Infectious Diseases.
Too few people in quarantine
Not only the statistics on tests and infections do not reflect the true state of affairs in Poland. This also applies to quarantine. The data on the number of people in quarantine in recent days may have been impressive (over a million a day at the end of January), however, as experts note, it is also understated.
On February 2, the Ministry of Health announced that 618 were in quarantine. people. On the other hand, 19 people stayed on isolation, resulting from a positive COVID-496 test result, that day. A simple calculation shows that there are 1,2 people in quarantine for one sick person. Considering how many people an infected person might have come into contact with, that number should be much larger.
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– There should be several people in isolation for one person in isolation. Everyone – even a single – has some contacts with other people, so either the Department of Health and Safety is slow, or people conceal information about who they have come into contact with and who they could have infected – comments prof. Flisiak.
Do you want to test your immunity to COVID-19 after vaccination? Have you been infected and want to check your antibody levels? See the COVID-19 immunity test package, which you will perform at Diagnostics network points.
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