Cordoba advances in openings with high number of Covid-19 infections | The danger of the Delta variant

A few days after the arrival of the variant Delta in Cordoba And unlike the rest of the country, the number of infections and deaths from Covid-19 in this province remains high. “Over the past three months, the numbers have hovered between 2,000 and 2,500 daily positive cases and around 20 deaths,” he said. Page 12 the infectologist Hugo Roland.

The professional who created the HIV-AIDS program and led for two decades the Rawson Hospital (specialized in infectious diseases), considered that the announcement of the President of the Nation Alberto Fernandez “It may be appropriate for the rest of the country but not for Cordoba in particular, because here the numbers have not decreased. People keep getting infected and they keep dying. There are people infected with the Delta variant and although the vaccination is progressing, it is still not sufficient. We believe that now this decree can make even more flexible care situations that were not the best by the State of Cordoba ”.

Cordoba added 1,075 infected people yesterday, bringing the total number since the start of the pandemic to 480,620, of which 35 (registered) are carriers of the infection caused by the Delta variant. While the dead number 6,237.

Regarding the national decree, Hugo Roland declared that “here nothing is progressive. Everything is open and no one controls anything. Last October, we observed that Cordoba had twice as many infections as CABA in terms of cumulative incidence in the population. And now he’s even older. We have three times that of CABA. If you look at the mortality curve, these are official figures, we see that from April the mortality increases. And now we have a mortality similar to that of October of last year ”.

For Roland, “we are immersed in a naturalization of death which is terrible. Every day we hear or read that there are 200, 300 dead and we turn the page. With colleagues, we reflected that since the deaths are not seen, they give a false sense of the absence of the tragedy. They become figures except for family members. We are witnessing a naturalization of death which, in many cases, could have been avoided with real preventive measures ”.

TO Rodrigo Quiroga, doctor of chemical sciences, professor at the National University of Cordoba and researcher at Conicet, “the DNU of the national government” was “disappointing” and, in a letter passed by the networks, he asked if “the pandemic took end by decree. ”Quiroga considered that “At the very least, the loosening of restrictions appears rushed, with Delta just starting to circulate. “

The researcher said that “the restrictions also inside should have been maintained one more month“, And this even if” we are all fed up with the pandemic; this premature easing could mean having to think again about some restrictions before the end of the year if the going gets tough. “

Carlos “Pecas” Soriano, surgeon and master in bioethics, described as “Unwise this decree now and with the Delta in the country. It is totally reckless. You have to read what happened in Europe. They cannot raise their heads with the Delta and here we open everything … A week ago a single man infected 20 people with this variant, they had to isolate 820, and now we already have 35 delta-positives among those who came out of this first case and arrived from the United States (three travelers in total). And it doesn’t take much to imagine what could happen with the expansion of 600 to 1,700 passengers entering the country per day, ”he warned.

Soriano felt that “this is very similar to chasing after the consequences of what is generated, which in this case contagions. All over the world, when they downplayed the importance of the Delta, they had to go back. And now, in full arrival, the schools are opening and with a total presence in some cases. prudence, “which consists in making the fairest decisions in situations of uncertainty. And that’s what we’re up to. Total uncertainty. We have vaccines, but we still need to vaccinate more people to achieve collective immunity ”.

Vaccine basket

As for the “positive of this situation that we are living” Gabriel Moron, professor of chemical sciences and vaccine specialist, explained to journalists Nicolás Gerchunoff and Luis Zegarra that “We have one of the largest vaccine baskets in the world: Sputnik V, Sinopharm, Astrazéneca, Moderna and now Cansino. And the combinations of some of them will allow a better immunological result ”; And to this factor, he attributed that “in Cordoba we have the worst number of infected people in the whole country, but no deaths”.

Consulted on this last point, Hugo roland it coincides, but given the arrival of the Delta variant, he points out that “it’s not yet clear how much that can affect. Yes it is very contagious; 140% more than the Alpha-Wuham and 60% more than the Great Britain variant; but not yet how deadly and if all vaccines can block it ”. The infectious scientist explains that “the more infections there are, the more human beings-organisms go through the viruses which replicate and at some point they make mistakes and mutate. At this time, variants appear which can be more or less bad. But we must remember that these mutations only happen if we allow them to be contagious. And if the variant is more aggressive, as in the case of the Delta, our vaccines are lagging behind. It is the theory of the evolution of species (of Charles Darwin) living and direct, on a daily basis ”.

Carlos soriano He also believes that “we would have had to wait another month to make this announcement. We still live in great uncertainty. I insist on Europe because we have the possibility to see before what happens to them. It is even a seasonal problem. Without going any further, next week we will again have temperatures below zero. And this data, that of winter, should have weighed so that no opening was made, and less in Cordoba where neither infections nor deaths have decreased ”.

TO Rodrigo Quiroga this (the announcement of the gradual opening) “will inevitably produce a relaxation of care throughout the country; but it is particularly inappropriate for provinces like Cordoba, Catamarca, La Pampa, La Rioja, Río Negro, where the numbers are still high. And this in conjunction with the message and a certain press centered on Buenos Aires which targets AMBA. What can happen is far from true in many provinces ”.

Hugo roland insists on vaccination “it is with prevention that this pandemic can end. The vaccination campaign is governed by Cidi (digital citizen, the online registry of the Schiaretti government). It is a kind of accounting supervision. It has nothing to do with vaccination. If there are vaccines, it is necessary to vaccinate in the place, house by house. They did. They vaccinated house to house against the flu. People have to go and get vaccinated without having to register. It’s a pandemic and the vaccine is the only thing that can save us ”.

On the political side, “this announcement by Alberto will share it with the Gringo (Schiaretti) and follow him by running to the right towards Larreta “A doctor who requested a reservation on his behalf told this newspaper. From the Union of Healthcare Workers (UTS), they agreed and felt “above that Schiaretti was already looking the other way and everything was open; this of DNU gives rise to continuing with the false sense that all is well. But here the pandemic continues and with the Delta. “