RIGA, Dec 16 (LETA) - At the moment, 11 percent of clients at state social care centers are infected with Covid-19, Egita Dorozkina, a senior expert of the Social Services Department of the Ministry of Welfare, informed LETA.

By the beginning of the week, the ministry was aware of infections in 13 State Social Care Center (VSAC) branches. 425 clients or 11 percent of the total number of VSAC residents have fallen ill, of which 414 clients are in quarantine at these centers, nine persons have died, and the rest are receiving treatment at medical facilities. In order to exclude further risk of transmission of the virus, there are 1,067 more clients in self-quarantine.

There are also 119 employees in self-quarantine, but 66 more employees are in self-quarantine as contact persons.

LETA has already reported that large-scale outbreaks of Covid-19 have been established not only in state, but also in municipal and privately managed social care institutions.

Currently, re-testing of clients and staff, initiated by the Ministry of Health, has been started in all long-term social care and social rehabilitation institutions, including the VSAC. Dorzkina explained that some persons infected with the virus were asymptomatic and the presence was only detected during this testing.

Dorožkina explained that according to the assessment of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, in the European Union and the European Economic Area high incidence and mortality of Covid-19 have been observed in long-term social care facilities, which poses serious problems for infection prevention and control.

Therefore, the distribution of personal protective equipment and disinfectants purchased from the state budget is primarily organized directly to long-term social care and social rehabilitation institutions, based on the number of client places in them. A total of 646,000 protective masks, 18,350 face screens, 236,500 pairs of gloves, 131,600 respirators, 49,050 medical overalls have been issued. 43,040 liters of disinfectant for surfaces and 39,720 liters of hand disinfectant have also been distributed.