病院職員、感染しても勤務継続　コロナ第２波到来のベルギー

【リエージュＡＦＰ＝時事】ベルギー東部リエージュの病院職員たちは現在、欧州を見舞っている新型コロナウイルス流行の第2波との厳しい闘いを強いられており、中には検査で陽性反応が出ても勤務を続ける人々もいる。（写真はベルギー・リエージュ大学病院センターで、新型コロナウイルス感染症患者を収容する集中治療室＜ICU＞で働く医療従事者）
　人口１１５０万人の小国であるベルギーは、第１波に続き第２波でも大きな被害を受けており、これまでに１万８００人余りが死亡、３２万人以上の感染が確認された。リエージュを含む南部ワロン地域と首都ブリュッセルは現在、欧州での流行第２波の中心地となっている。
　リエージュ大学病院センターでは、感染者を収容する集中治療室（ＩＣＵ）の廊下に職員と患者があふれ、病室は３～５月の第１波より速いペースで埋まっている。ＩＣＵ責任者のブノワ・ミセ医師はＡＦＰに、「私たちは負けており、圧倒され、憤慨している。こうなることは２か月前から分かっていたのに、時宜を得た決定が下されなかった」と語った。
　別のＩＣＵを率いる感染症専門医のクリステル・ムリ氏は「私たちは、最新の措置では（流行）曲線を平たん化できないのではないかと恐れている。津波が来ているのが見える」と述べた。
　ＩＣＵで働くある看護師は、３週間前に新型コロナウイルス検査で陽性になったが、勤務を続けなければならなかったという。「それ以外に選択肢はほぼなかった。症状はあまりなかった。上司に伝えると、『代わりになる人がいない。君には出勤してもらわないと』と言われた」。このＩＣＵでは職員２３人のうち４人が陽性となったが勤務を続けている。
　ＩＣＵ責任者のミセ医師も、自分たちは勤務を続けざるをえないと説明。「自分が看護師か医者で、病気にかかっても痛みがなく寝込んでもいなければ、マスクを着けるしかない。働かなければならない」と話した。
　ミセ医師は、新たなロックダウン（都市封鎖）措置の導入を強く支持し、ベルギーが流行第２波対策として講じた外出禁止令や飲食店閉鎖よりも有効だと考えている。
　ミセ医師はまた、夏の間も新型ウイルスの流行継続の兆しがあったのにもかかわらず「誰も状況を深刻に捉えなかった。政治家も、一般の人々もだ」と憤り、現在の状況を「塹壕（ざんごう）戦だ」と表現。違いは「爆弾ではなくウイルス」であり、「采配を振っているのはウイルスで、私たちでも、政治家でも、科学者でもない」と語った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/10/27-12:57）

Shell-shocked hospital staff, some of whom have tested positive for the coronavirus, are fighting a losing battle in the Belgian city of Liege against Europe's second wave of Covid-19.
It is the second time that Belgium, a small EU country of 11.5 million people, has ended up as one of the hardest hit by the global pandemic. It has already seen more than 270,000 cases and 10,500 deaths.
And, according to the latest data, Brussels and Wallonia, the French-speaking region of which Liege is a major city, are now the epicentres of Europe's renewed crisis.
This repeat performance brings a quiet rage to those on the front lines in the medieval city's overwhelmed university hospital CHU Liege.
- 'A tsunami coming' -
His hair unkept and eyes weary, Benoit Misset, head of the intensive care unit, weighs each word as he explains the daily onslaught from the silent virus threat.
We're losing. We're overwhelmed. We're bitter... because we've known this was coming for two months and the decisions weren't taken in time, he told AFP.
The hallway of his Covid unit is filled with staff and patients, and rooms are crowding even more quickly than in the first explosion of cases that ran from March until May.
On Wednesday, we almost reached the number of cases we saw in the first wave, says Christelle Meuris, an infection specialist and head of the unit.
We're afraid that the latest measures will not be enough to flatten the curve. We can see a tsunami coming, said the doctor, whose unit now has 18 virus patients in its 26 beds.
She said she fears that soon each room will have to take two patients, a complicated situation for a virus this contagious.
Everyone is worried that Liege, just a short drive from Germany or the Netherlands, will become the next Bergamo, the Italian city where scenes of overcome hospitals heralded a pandemic that was about to engulf Europe.
- 'I have to work' -
Before entering a patient's room, Hendrika Abourou, a double-masked nurse's aide, laces on three overblouses and squeezes her hands into two pairs of gloves, not forgetting her protective glasses.
Each gesture is calculated. To move the patient, wash him, throw his sheet in a specific bag... We have to think all the time, pay attention to everything, she explained.
Many of her colleagues did not make it beyond the first wave, giving up hospital work altogether. About 20 percent of current staff are unable to come to work.
The shortage was already there before, but it's becoming more and more acute because the staff is also affected by the Covid when we're going to have to hold out for many months, said Meuris, the head of unit.
- 'It's trench warfare' -
In the intensive care ward, nurse Thomas, who gave only his last name, said he had worked after testing positive for the virus three weeks ago.
I didn't have much choice. I didn't have a lot of symptoms. I told my supervisor. He told me 'we can't replace you. You're going to have to come in', he said.
The 33-year-old acknowledged a difficult decision, but patients don't take breaks. It was also by solidarity with my team.
In his unit of 23 people, four Covid-positive staff are still working. We take even more precautions, he said.
The intensive care unit's boss, Misset, said there was no choice.
If I'm a nurse or doctor and I'm sick and I don't have aches and pains, if I'm not in bed, all I have to do is put on my mask. You have to work, he said.
Two days ago, the hospital began transferring patients to other Belgian provinces and to Germany.
Misset, who is French, is strongly in favour of new lockdowns, which he says are more effective than the curfews and bar and restaurant closures that Belgium adopted to stem the virus resurgence.
Nobody took the situation seriously. Politicians as well as the people, he said angrily of the summer months in which signs of the virus' continued presence were taken too lightly.
Now it's trench warfare, with the difference that it's not bombs, it's a virus and it's the virus calling the shots, not us, not politicians, not scientists.