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The head of the Department for Emergency Situations (DSU) Raed Arafat explained during a press conference at the Government headquarters, on Monday, that the decision of eliminating testing for access to certain activities for the people who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 or who went through the disease was made considering a "minimum possible risk".
"Simple, I will explain, because a lot of people are saying that this is discrimination, that the green certificate means that everyone is equal. no. Even today a study showed up in the USA which shows this. So, the chance of getting infected, if you are vaccinated, according to the study from the USA, is 5 times smaller. Vaccinated people, those who went through the disease, have immunity, which means that the odds of spreading it, to get infected - even if they do get infected, they have 11 times better odds of not going to the ICU, to not have serious problems, so they only go through the mild form. Testing, at the moment of being tested, is negative, but not being vaccinated, not going through the disease, testing is also a very good vehicle to get infected, to end up in the ICU and overload our ICU sections and emergency rooms and everything," Raed Arafat declared.
Arafat added that this is about risk management.
"We are risking to the limit, we are not at maximum risk, we are not risking everything. If we accepted that after 6 per thousand inhabitants (COVID-19 incidence rate, ed. n.) to keep certain activities open, which another time we closed them even from 3 per thousand, not 6 per thousand, we accepted this, keeping the minimum possible risk. Because of this, those who are vaccinated, who went through the disease, who are immune, enter there, they are at risk, but above them the risk is limited. If one person who is tested takes part and several people there get infected, maybe he/she did the test two days prior and is on the third day, and is positive, we have no way of knowing, the result is different, because it is a person without immunity. So, that is the difference between the two categories, vaccinated, who went through the disease, that have immunity, and testing, which only during the moment of testing was negative. That does not mean that on the third day he/she will also be negative, but it is a calculated risk," he specified.
The head of DSU reiterated that the provision regarding the testing elimination for accessing to activities does not take work relations into account.
