Coronavirus: Daily infections increased 115% in past two weeks

The number of cases of coronavirus in the country, for the fourth day in a row there were more than 20,000 today. Even a new historic maximum was reached, with 24,130 new infections in just 24 hours. This rating allowed the epidemiological moving average to indicate a 115% increase in just two weeks.

Experts and officials consulted by LA NACION warned against the sharp increase and anticipated that it will be essential to know in what percentage the increase is due to a greater circulation of the new variants of the SARS-CoV-2, which has wreaked havoc on the region’s health systems and other parts of the world.

“We look at this moving average every 14 days. It does not surprise me that it is one of the most important since the arrival of the pandemic“said to THE NATION Eduardo López, Infectious disease specialist and head of the medical department at Ricardo Gutiérrez Children’s Hospital, adding: “The end-of-year increase was equal to this, with an increase of over 100% in cases.

Asked about his analysis of the slope of the climb, López replied: “The first thing is that the virus is circulating intensely throughout the community. This correlates with the fact that more than half of infections occur in people under the age of 50. In other words, it is about the young and the young adult. This reveals how difficult it is to block cases because these are the people who tend to hold the most meetings, have less personal care and those who move the most ”.

On this point, the officials of the Ministry of Health of the Nation consulted by this means agree, who replied: “This is an exponential increase in cases which, without a doubt, is explained by the mobility of people, the relaxation of measures by the fatigue of the populations, the onset of low temperatures and the low perception of risk, among other factors ”.

“The other question that needs to be considered carefully is how they affect the rise of cases the new variants of Covid-19. Last week it was at 1%, if this week it rises, for example, to 10%, it is a very big jump and there we will have to apply the brakes more ”, added López.

THE NATION consulted sources from the Ministry of Science, Technology and innovation in charge of the Argentinian inter-institutional SARS-CoV-2 genomics project (known as the country project), which They clarified that the next report is still in preparation..

When asked what would happen if this scenario were to repeat itself in the next two weeks, López said: “The first thing is that we are going to have days of over 40,000 infections. This would mean having to take more stringent quarantine measures, as has happened in Italy, France and England. What has started to be applied now is a light or moderate sanitary restriction setting. It is the one who used, at the beginning, England and France for the big cities ”.

The infectologist, who advises the national and Buenos Aires governments, added: “I think if we don’t increase testing and follow-up, the quarantine is incomplete. When it is above 10%, it is because the virus is circulating more than it can be detected. The World Health Organization recommends that the positivity be less than 10%. In this case, at a minimum, the number of tests must be doubled and then follow the origin of the infections.

According to data revealed today by the Ministry of Health, the day before yesterday 90,657 tests have been processed and since the start of the epidemic, 9,451,754 diagnostic tests have been carried out for this disease. Positivity on the day was close to 30% and one of the highest in the past week.

The other data that worries health authorities is that the increase in deaths has also started to follow the same curve as that of infections. “The epidemiological average of the last 14 days clearly shows that we have fewer deaths than last year, but beware, the average mortality is not accompanied, but exceeded, because in the middle is the traffic in the intensive therapy units “. López remembers.

According to the latest information, yesterday 228 deaths from the coronavirus were added to the National Health Surveillance System (SNVS) and a total of 57,350 deaths have already been recorded. Among the deceased, two people residing in the province of Buenos Aires and one in Santa Fe did not present data on sex. Of the others, 127 were men: 62 lived in Buenos Aires, 12 in Santa Fe, eight in the city of Buenos Aires, seven in Córdoba, six in Tucumán, five in Chaco and Chubut; four in Salta, three in Jujuy and Santa Cruz; two in Corrientes, La Pampa, Mendoza and Río Negro; and one in Entre Ríos, Formosa, Neuquén and Santiago del Estero.

Meanwhile, the women who died they were 98: 61 lived in the province of Buenos Aires, eight in Cordoba, seven in Mendoza and Santa Fe; six in the city of Buenos Aires, two in Misiones and Salta; and one in Chaco, Chubut, Corrientes, Jujuy and Río Negro.

Meanwhile, the latest data revealed by the Argentine Nation’s Health Ministry indicated that the 24,130 newly infected reached a new high. This figure had not been reached in the first 403 days since the arrival of the virus in the country. It even meant the country came in seventh in the world in new cases for the day, second only to India, Brazil, the United States, Turkey, France and Poland. The encouraging data are those of the 2,497,881 infected that have been recorded so far in the country, 2,203,926 people have already overcome the disease and 236,605 are considered active cases.

The provinces which by reporting their daily infections they had new records These were: Buenos Aires, which with 12,452 exceeded the maximum of the previous day, which had been 12,026 infections, and the city of Buenos, which with 2,601 had nearly 150 cases the maximum, which was three days.

Infections in the other 22 jurisdictions were as follows: 1867 in Córdoba, 1427 in Santa Fe, 1056 in Mendoza, 850 in Tucumán, 452 in Entre Ríos, 443 in San Luis, 433 in Corrientes, 247 in Salta, 226 in San Juan, 224 in Chaco, 223 in Santiago del Estero, 214 in La Pampa, 208 in Río Negro, 193 Chubut, 176 in Santa Cruz, 175 in Neuquén, 170 in Misiones, 151 in Tierra del Fuego, 128 in Catamarca, 100 in Formosa, 60 in La Rioja and 54 in Jujuy.

On the other hand, The day before yesterday there were 3,718 people with the disease in intensive care units (ICU). The occupancy of ICU beds, beyond the illness which explains the patient’s hospitalization, at the national level is on average 59.1%, while it reaches 67% in the AMBA.