The strategy involves the creation of four advanced health centres in the country, which will replace the drop-in health centres (maisons médicales). The first will be set up at Luxexpo The Box, in Luxembourg-Kirchberg, on Monday.

Two additional advanced health centres will be opened at the Rockhal, in Esch-Belval, in the south, and in the Däichhal cultural centre, in Ettelbruck. The government is in the process of finding an appropriate site in Grevenmacher to serve the east of the country.

These treatment centres will be the first port of call for diagnosing patients with covid-19. Each centre will be divided into two sections: one to treat virus carriers, a second for patients with other illnesses.

To make the transition as seamless as possible, Lenert said the drop-in centre in Luxembourg City will operate until 12noon on Monday, when it will be moved to Luxexpo The Box, to be operational from 2pm the same day.

These centres supplement an extension of the CHL hospital, in Strassen, which will increase capacity by around 100 beds.

Equipment

The minister pointed out the key challenges facing Luxembourg are lack of health staff and equipment. To tackle the staff shortage, an online list of the types of profiles the health service may require was expected to go live on Monday. People with the appropriate skills will be asked to contact the ministry. Regarding equipment, Lenert said the ministry had a number of orders underway and she was confident the orders would be honoured in the coming weeks. If companies are able to donate masks, gloves and disinfectant material, they are invited to contact the government.

Tests

On 22 March, some 798 cases had been detected in Luxembourg. Lenert said that the high rate of incidences was explained by the large number of tests carried out. She said 1,500 tests were being conducted daily. “We’re trying to continue at this pace. But don’t ask me how many more days we can do this,” she said.

19 March 2020 photo shows a health worker at a drop-in testing centre in the grand duchy of Luembourg. Photo: Matic Zorman

Waves of transmission

Responding to press questions, the minister said that the a wave of cases had appeared to be linked to people returning from winter sports holidays. But she said that there were no particular geographic hot spots of incidences in the grand duchy. “Right now there is a wave of contamination across the country,” she said.

ICU capacity

Lenert said that the capacity for intensive care units in hospital was 112 with the possibility for extension.

Cured patients

The health minister estimated that around 10 patients in Luxembourg had already recovered from covid-19, but she expected more clarity over these figures in the coming week. “Monitoring will be more effective next week,” she said.

Cycling allowed

Residents are permitted to leave their homes to get fresh air, provided they respect social distancing measures. Lenert put paid to some calls on social media that cycling should be banned because if a cyclist has an accident, they place further pressure on the health system. “If there are people who want to ride a bicycle then it’s not a problem. I’m confident that we won’t need to ban it because people are behaving very reasonably,” she said.

Supporting the Greater Regions

Lenert said the Greater Region was experiencing enough problems, and so it was unlikely that Luxembourg would reach out to them for help. However, if people in these areas needed medical help, she expected Luxembourg could give some provision. Last week, the government announced it was freeing up hotel rooms for cross-border workers in the health sector. On Sunday, Lenert said that 173 people had taken them up on the offer and more were welcome.