Collapse of therapy beds with less than 50 patients: the B side of successful vaccination in Chile

Of Chile’s 19 million people, 45% or 7 million have already received a dose of the coronavirus vaccine that started more than two months ago.

What would be good news a priori has been overshadowed in recent days by the escalation of cases facing the trans-Andean country, which records an average of 8,000 infections daily following the second wave of Covid-19. And above, a record occupancy of intensive care units, which has a new feature: most of the hospitalized are between 40 and 49 years old.

According to the local press, the same Confidence in the vaccination campaign had its B side: The Chileans have relaxed preventive measures. But in addition, the vaccination began after new strains of the coronavirus, and some more infectious, like that of Manaus, had already arrived in the country.

While the vaccination started two months ago, the second doses began to be inoculated one month later: on March 3. Until today, Chile reports 1,037,780 cases and 23,734 deaths due to Covid-19.

For the moment, this second wave in Chile is worse in number of infected than the first, who in this country was in June 2020 when he had a peak of 6938 infected within a day. While Last Friday it was 8,112 people. There are also differences in the number of tests performed: in June it was around 20,000 per day and last Friday it was 73,000.

35,000 tests were carried out yesterday and thethe daily positivity rate continues to exceed 10% for more than one consecutive week (13.91%).

In any case, yesterday the Ministry of Health reported 5,164 new cases and 57 deaths, which confirms a decrease but difficult weeks are expected in hospitals: patients hospitalized in intensive care have dropped to 2,946.

The Spanish newspaper El Pas points out that among those hospitalized in intensive care, there are more patients aged between 40 and 49 years (469), than those over 70 (378) and those under 39 are 359.

The adviser of the Ministry of Health Toms Regueira estimated that “from a case point of view, we probably still have two weeks, and from a hospital point of view, three or four weeks more difficult“, cit Cooperative radio.

“We are all very tired and it is difficult,” admitted Regueira. “It will diminish and the effect of the vaccine will come, and therefore, we are confident that we will all make this effort for what lies ahead,” he also said, referring to the new restrictions established by the government. .