Coronavirus: controversy over the collapse of the Valparaíso hospital morgue

the Carlos Van Buren Hospital in Valparaíso, located 120 kilometers from Santiago, alerted this Sunday of the collapse of his morgue due to the increase in deaths from covid-19, that according to the report of the health authorities was 17 people the last day.

With the country severely affected by the advance of the second wave of the pandemic, which, to date, maintains 16 million people – 97% of the population – under total containment, the institution reported that “in the last few hours” they have seen “an increased demand for spaces to keep the remains” of their patients.

There is a latent risk of seeing the storage capacity of bodies exceeded, the hospital placed the deceased in a closed area of ​​the hospital, “To maintain the sanitary conditions and the dignity of the deceased”.

“The morgue collapsed and unfortunately the hallways were activated (…) we have nine bodies of people who died from covid-19“, he explained to the local press the head of the National Federation of Health Workers of Valparaíso, Aron Neira.

However, the director of the Valparaíso – San Antonio Health Service (SSVSA), Eugenio de la Cerda, ruled out collapse from the mortuary of the Carlos Van Buren hospital, according to the newspaper BioBio.

“The stressed amount has been maintained, in a number which is not normal, but there is no collapse in the morgue“, he claimed.

The authority assured that a room was activated, because no body was reached. And he clarified that the corridor seen in the photographs does not correspond to a space outside the morgue, but to an annex.

NOW: The intensive care room and morgue at Carlos Van Buren Hospital in Valparaíso, Chile have collapsed. A refrigerated truck has arrived to store the corpses that are in the basement corridors. pic.twitter.com/DmqNcNk5w2

– World in conflict 🌎 (@MundoEConflicto) March 28, 2021

The region of Valparaíso, the second most populous in the country, broke its record for daily covid-19 infections, detecting 880 new cases in the past 24 hours and reaching a total of 1,835 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

As reported by Regional Ministerial Secretary of Health Georg Hubner, the region’s hospital capacity in terms of intensive care unit beds is 98% occupied, recognizing the critical moment that the area is going through due to the advance of the virus.

According to the report issued by the Ministry of Health, the country has 41,767 active cases, while the number of deaths rises to more than 30,000 between cases with PCR positive and suspects.

Despite the fact that there are more than 6.3 million people vaccinated against the coronavirus, in a massive campaign that began last February, the risk communication failures recognized by the government, in addition to ineffective measures that failed were not based on evidence According to experts, scientists have prevented the control of the increase in infections.

The government, which has committed 35 million doses to carry out its vaccination plan, plans to vaccinate 80% of the population by the end of June.