Chilean medical school warns the country is “at the worst time of the pandemic” and the situation could worsen

The Medical College of Chile (Colmed) warned the Andean country is in the “worst moment of the pandemic” and that the situation is probable “May get worse” if government authorities do not take more stringent measures in the next few hours.

The second wave of COVID-19 has generated an unprecedented increase in infections in Chile. This Friday will be recorded 7,626 infections, the highest daily figure since the start of the pandemic. This is the third time this week that the 7,000 mark has been crossed. In addition, more than 63 new deaths and 41,151 active cases have been recorded in total (the latter figure is also a record).

Of the 3,352 intensive care beds in the country, 73.57% of them are occupied by patients with COVID-19. According to the Ministry of Health, there are 2,466 people in critical condition, including 2,103 connected to artificial respirators. The total occupancy rate of the hospital is 95% and there are only 160 intensive care beds available nationwide.

In addition, the health authority has detected over 100 cases with variants of the British and Brazilian strain.

“So far genomic samples, both at the airport and in the community, have been detected 64 positive samples from the British variant and 45 from the Brazilian variant “, detailed the Under-Secretary for Health, Paula Daza.

The positivity rate – the number of COVID-19 infections detected for every 100 PCR tests performed – also remained at 9.6%, far from the 5% that the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends to maintain for two consecutive weeks to contemplate the pandemic. control.

The situation has led the government to institute a strict quarantine for the vast majority of the population. Since Thursday, 97% of residents have been affected by measures of this nature.

However, given that the measures have entered into force in recent hours, the country is still a few days – or weeks – away from seeing positive effects on the health situation.

Optimize quarantines and reduce mobility

It is in this scenario that the Medical College of Chile warned that there is the possibility of “being overwhelmed”.

“As a medical community, we are afraid of being overwhelmed, of not having the capacity to provide care and to hospitalize those who need it. If this happens, the risk of dying from COVID-19 increases, or also from any other serious illness, such as a road accident or stroke, ”admitted the president of the medical union, Izkia Siches.

In the document, the Guild insisted on the need to improve the effectiveness of quarantine. According to the national secretary of the entity, José Miguel Bernucci, “the ‘step by step’ plan has been completely unclear for a long time” and the quarantines “have been extremely lax and long, and very ineffective”.

“It’s one thing for a commune to be quarantined, but Its aim is to significantly reduce mobility in these areas. This is what we have not seen and that is why, in addition to the quarantine, we must monitor, be strict with health checks and decrease the number of permitsAdded Colmed vice-president Patricio Guzmán.

Finally, the union warned that health workers were “exhausted” and that this was a serious concern within the medical community. “If we add to this that our health staff is really exhausted, that they have a lot of will to continue to face the pandemic but it’s devastated after a year, it’s a worrying situation”Guzmán said.

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