Coronavirus in Argentina: the occupancy rate of intensive care beds reaches its lowest level since last January

The downward trend continues as part of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina. After the figures published yesterday by the Ministry of Health of the Nation, occupancy of intensive care beds has reached its lowest level since last January.

The specific data reflects that in terms of occupancy of beds in intensive care units with patients positive for the coronavirus, the number of yesterday (3.377) is the lowest since January 3.

Regarding the details of the statistics, these patients represent 26% of the total intensive care beds nationwide, including the public and private sectors of the country.

The Nation’s Health Ministry also reported yesterday that, In the past 24 hours, there have been 229 deaths and 8,160 new coronavirus infections. With these figures, the country has accumulated a total of 5,124,963 positive cases since the start of the pandemic, while deaths are 110,070.

On the other hand, from Thursday to Friday, 97,742 tests were performed, with a positivity rate of 8.35%, below the 10% recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Since the start of the epidemic, 21,193,092 diagnostic tests for this disease have been carried out. To date, there are 218,845 active positive cases nationwide and 4,796,048 recovered.

According to data from the Ministry of Health, the Gamma variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, first recorded in Manaus, Brazil, continues to be the predominant circulation in the country. For the Delta variant, 5 cases unrelated to travelers were confirmed (0.06% of total samples sequenced). So far there is 174 cases with this sequenced variant (travelers, linked to travelers and 5 unrelated cases), plus 21 cases of close contacts positive for COVID of confirmed infected of this lineage, which emerged in India.

There are those who believe that due to the coexistence that exists in Argentina of variants of SARS-CoV-2 and this may explain why Delta has not hit so hard – at least until now – in our country. Round off a question here: Could it be that due to the circulation of variants such as Manaus / Gamma, the impact of Indian lineage has been cushioned? Are the predominant lineages in Argentina a retaining wall to delay Delta’s impact?

The infectologist from Muñiz hospital and member of the advisory team of President Alberto Fernández, Thomas orduna, referred to confirmed cases of the delta variant with no epidemiologic link this week and noted that “There is certainly a circulation whisper of Delta but for the moment he has not copulated the transmission ”. He also underlined that “the Delta variant is circulating but fortunately it still does not prevail”.

Orduna estimated that “Córdoba has done important epidemiological work to stop the Delta epidemic” and remarked that “every day that the Delta is not there we vaccinate 200,000 or 250,000 people and save time” . “The Delta variant will increase slowly and at some point it may accelerate because its contagiousness is very high.“And expanded:” A person infected with Delta can infect between 5 or 9 people. “The logarithmic growth of the Delta variant has occurred in countries where vaccination is greater than 80%, but this has not been accompanied by deaths,” said the doctor.

It has also been learned that an immune defect may explain the consequences of severe conditions caused by a coronavirus infection. This is detailed in two studies published last Thursday in the magazine Scientific immunology, which show how a quarter of the complex forms of the virus can be explained by a genetic or immune system defect.

Clarifications of how the virus works, how it works in the human body, are vital elements for understanding COVID-19 and therapies to combat serious conditions.

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