From nurses to railway personnel, the categories in crisis due to the quarantine boom

3 ‘reading

Hospitals, transport, work: as the hours go by, absences contagion or isolation after close contact with a positive are sending some essential services into a tailspin. The most affected categories are doctors and nurses but also train drivers, aircraft pilots and law enforcement agencies.

Nurses and doctors

“C ‘ it is a situation of serious inconvenience for nurses who work in hospitals. Colleagues are unable to guarantee the daily routine of their professional activity and work in pitiful conditions. They are considered to be slaughtered fodder », the president of the Nursing Up nurses union, Antonio De Palma, raised the alarm. In fact, in recent weeks, according to data from Nursing up, infections from Covid-19 among health workers have increased dramatically: 6618 in the last 30 days alone. Numbers to at least triple if we also consider those who are forced to quarantine (even if vaccinated and without symptoms) because direct contacts of positives. Among infected health workers forced into fiduciary isolation and growing infections, therefore, the alarm rises in hospitals, and it becomes increasingly difficult for doctors and nurses to manage ordinary hospitalizations and intensive care.

Fnopi data

According to Fnopi, the National Federation of Nursing Orders, at this moment between the infected and confined at home waiting for a tampon, 25 thousand would be missing: 20 thousand nurses and 5 thousand doctors . Precisely to remedy this problem, a reflection would be underway on possible derogations or reductions of the quarantine days for those health workers who come into contact, outside their work environment, with positive people.

Transport chaos: Piedmont replaces unmanned trains with buses

And the transport sector is also beginning to suffer: there are not only flights canceled due to lack of staff, pilots and hostesses forced home by Covid. From 29 December, Piedmont, for example, has been replacing trains with buses that are found to have no railway personnel as they are positive in the Covid test or in isolation due to contact with positive subjects. “Thanks to the close collaboration between the Piedmont Region, Trenitalia and the Piedmontese Mobility Agency, we were able to quickly reorganize rail transport throughout Piedmont, with the aim of not removing any transport – says the Regional Transport Councilor Piedmont, Marco Gabusi explaining how the region has chosen the path of integration with substitute buses so as not to deprive the Piedmontese of the possibility to move. “In the meantime, we will monitor daily the needs that may arise in the coming days. The eye is also focused on January 10 when schools will resume and the use of public transport will return to full capacity; we hope by that date a normalization of the situation of railway personnel “, adds the commissioner.

Trenord, absences almost 12%, expected forced cut 100 trips per day

The accelerated decision of the pandemic situation also has an impact on Trenord’s crews, “making it necessary to partially reschedule the railway service in Lombardy”. In these days, the company “records a hundred absences due to positivity to Covid-19 or quarantines between the captains and train drivers, in addition to the 50 that on average are counted for illness or leave. Absences are therefore close to 12% of the approximately 1300 people, including capitreno and train drivers, who in these days would be used to make the 1800 races scheduled for the weeks of holidays ». The spread of infections is having a “strong” impact on the service, “leading to the forecast of about 100 trips forcibly suppressed in the next few days” explains the group. The situation is progressively evolving; Trenord advises passengers to consult the app and the trenord.it website, on which changes to the service are anticipated.