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The “second wave” of the coronavirus in Venezuela means that, when more than a year of the pandemic has passed, it speaks of the “worst time” with an increase in cases and deaths.
Although Venezuela reports better conditions than other neighboring countries, the government has stepped up quarantine and admits increased occupancy of hospital beds and the number of infections.
After a flexible Christmas and Carnival, the government of Nicols Maduro has imposed a “radical quarantine” this week and next year, which coincides with the Holy Week holidays.
“We are now facing the second wave. Without a doubt, as early as March 16, we detected a second wave of the coronavirus, the root cause of which is the arrival of the Brazilian variant in our country,” Maduro said on Sunday to justify the “quarantine radical.” for two weeks, until Sunday April 4.
During the pandemic, Venezuela implemented a 7 + 7 system that included a week of quarantine and a week of relaxation. But now the government has been forced to toughen the measures.
“The Brazilian variant forces us to go to zero point in 2020, it’s not a game,” warned Maduro, who is criticized for his recent slackening during the carnival.
The so-called Brazilian variant is one of the main causes of the crisis in Brazil and the rebound in neighboring countries like Uruguay and Paraguay.
The government has set up a special covid attention center in the Poliedro de Caracas.
And although official figures from the Venezuelan government have been called into question, those same figures now reflect a higher incidence.
Last week, the 1,000 cases reported daily were exceeded. “Since September, we have not exceeded 1,000 cases. We had succeeded in containing this first wave and we had brought it to a plateau and to control,” the president said on Sunday.
Now, on the other hand: “The number of dead has increased, we come with an average of 3-4 per day unfortunately and we have gone down to 8 per day, and that could increase”.
“The occupation of hospital beds is increasing,” he confirmed what the medical unions had already denounced.
“We went from 20 positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants to 27 per 100,000 inhabitants”, compared the first and third week of March.
The government has decreed a radical quarantine for two weeks until April 4.
“People are dying, they are dying. Infections are on the increase,” he said this week. Rafael Lacava, official governor of the state of Carabobo, in the center of the country.
As of Wednesday, March 24, the government reported 807 new cases in the past 24 hours and ten deaths for a total of 1,521, still much lower than others in the region.
Hospitals
Maduro did not give figures on bed occupancy, but several industry sources consulted by BBC Mundo confirm the increase in cases which, as has been the subject for a year, are weighing on the hospital system of a country in severe economic crisis for years. .
“Caracas is in a complex and difficult situation,” said Maduro.
And this is reflected in the hospitals of the capital.
“The emergency room is collapsed, saturated. The 36 covid beds we have are occupied all the time,” Mundo Mara Eugenia Landaeta, head of the infectious diseases department at Caracas University Hospital, told BBC.
“At the beginning of the year, in January and February, all the beds were not occupied, and there were possibilities to offer hospitalization, but since the carnival it has collapsed,” adds the doctor.
“We have many patients checked at home, and we try to refer those who require hospitalization to other centers, but none are receiving patients because they have collapsed,” says the doctor, who criticizes the allocation of government resources and regrets the loss. staff for public wages eaten away by hyperinflation.
Oxygen is more and more in demand with the increase in cases.
Landaeta also highlights a growing demand for oxygen cylinders, the rent of which for home care has increased, making their cost higher.
“This push is much more severe because the demand for hospital beds is brutal“, CV.
Felipe, a fictitious name, is a counselor at a private clinic in Caracas who prefers to remain anonymous to speak openly, says Venezuela may have contained the pandemic well last year due to the lack of international flights and the difficulty mobilization due to lack of fuel.
But now the situation has changed.
“Now we are starting to see the seams of structural problems“says Felipe, who ensures that government sentinel hospitals are well equipped for the treatment of covid-19.
The occupancy rate of beds for covid in private clinics in the capital is around 95 to 96%, he says, and is higher in public centers.
In his clinic, Felipe saw how they went from treating 10 to 15 people a day for COVID to the current treatment of 50 to 60.
“In January, the beds for covid were completely empty and now everything is completely full,” he compares.
“This is the worst moment of the pandemic in a year,” he notes. “We have our fingers crossed so that it does not continue to climb. If it overflows, there will be serious consequences because hospitals are crowded“.
Doctors say there are centers that cannot take more patients.
The same is happening in the city of Valencia, in the center of the country, about 150 kilometers from Caracas.
“We have eight beds for critical covid-19 patients and were about to close them in January due to the decrease in cases from November to December. From January, there is a greater occupation, with a greater turnover, and the beds are occupied immediately ”, tells a manager of a private clinic in Valencia to BBC Mundo who prefers to remain anonymous.
“This is the worst moment of the pandemic so far, but I think we have not yet reached the worst,” he anticipates.
Vaccines
Venezuela took restrictive measures a year ago that allowed it to contain the pandemic. Vaccination will be vital in doing this from now on, but it is one of the most backward countries in the region in this regard.
There are no figures on the number of people vaccinated, but it is estimated that around 700,000 doses of Russian have reached the country. Sputnik V and from China Sinopharm.
President Nicols Maduro attributes the increase in cases to the Brazilian variant of the coronavirus.
Last week, the government and the opposition, which can access resources frozen by the US Treasury, a country that does not recognize Maduro as president, reached an agreement that would allow the mechanism’s vaccines to arrive. Covax, thanks to which the poorest countries have access to doses at a very advantageous price.
Funding of $ 18 million has been made available to access Covax, but while this is an essential first step, it is not enough.
“After payment, it is necessary to confirm that there are sufficient funds, approximately US $ 100 million, to complete the (payment) for the remainder of the vaccine, or approximately 2.4 million vaccines that will arrive over time. measurement of the payment and allocation of vaccines for countries, ”he explained this week Ciro Ugarte, director of health emergencies at Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
Despite the absence of vaccines, the vice-president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodrguez, reiterated on Wednesday that Venezuela will not import vaccines from AstraZeneca, foreseen in the Covax mechanism, due to the suspected risks of side effects that the World Health Organization (WHO) and drug regulatory bodies in the United Kingdom and the European Union have dismissed.
Instead, Maduro announced that two vaccines developed in Cuba (Soberana-02 and Abdala) will arrive in the first week of April for clinical trials in Venezuela.
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