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Outside of Guam Memorial Hospital, blue medical tents have sprung up to accommodate an overflow of Covid patients.
The sight is confusing for the people of Guam. The island has had an incredibly successful vaccination campaign, with almost 90% of eligible people having received two doses, and has even started offering vaccines to tourists as part of an “Air VnV” program – vacations and vaccination. -.
But the tents have been set up to accommodate an overflow of Covid patients at the hospital as the territory grapples with a third wave of the virus, with daily deaths reaching the highest rates since March 2020.
“We just don’t have space – we have Covid patients waiting outside,” hospital nurse Pauline Perez said in a video released by the government calling on remaining vaccine laggards to come forward. get vaccinated.
“We use the blue medical tents for Covid-19 patients who are stable. They need to be seen by doctors, but they don’t need treatment.
Even before the start of the pandemic, Guam’s health system was fragile, but the increase in Covid cases triggered by the Delta variant pushed it to the brink of collapse.
Last week, the government hospital suspended its services for all elective surgeries to realign its limited resources.
“The problem is the staff, which is why we have suspended elective surgeries in order to free up more staff to take care of more patients,” said Mai Habib, spokesperson for the hospital.
The regional medical city of Guam, a private hospital, is in the same situation.
“We are in crisis. I’m not going to sweeten that at all, ”said Dr Alexander Wielaard, his medical director. “We have seen an abnormal number of patients. “
“I cried after hearing the news”
Guam has seen nearly 300 cases on certain days in recent weeks, reversing months of steady decline. It has recorded 14,705 cases – nine percent of Guam’s 160,000 residents – and 195 deaths.
Covid test results over the past two months have shown an alarming rate of breakthrough cases from people who had been vaccinated, including 554 of the 1,765 positive cases in August. Overall, breakthrough cases account for 31% of infections – the highest rate in the United States, where most states have less than 1%. Breakthrough patients in Guam account for about 40% of hospital admissions.
The Covid outbreak is puzzling for a territory with a vaccination rate close to 90%, ranking sixth in the United States. To date, a total of 118,756 people – or 87.13% – of Guam’s eligible population (residents 12 years of age and older) are fully immunized. This includes 10,318 residents aged 12 to 17.
The high rate of rupture cases has created fear in the community.
“One of my office colleagues received the results of her swab test and she tested positive,” said Dori Leomo, a resident of Tamuning. “I cried after hearing the news. This is the first time that I have experienced anxiety. The next day we all went to work for our swab tests. Thank goodness I tested negative.
“The figures should not be taken out of context”
While there has been some hesitation about vaccines, experts warn that vaccines work to protect citizens and estimate the number of cases would be three times higher than they are if the rate vaccination rates had not been as high and that when vaccinated people are hospitalized, their stays are much shorter and illnesses much less serious.
“It is clear that most people who stay in hospital longer are not vaccinated. The length of stay of vaccinated people is on average about two days. These are minor admissions and use less resources in the hospital than those who are not vaccinated, ”said Dr Nathan Berg, who heads the governor’s physician advisory group.
As to why there was such a big third wave on the island, experts point to a number of factors.
“The best estimate of our higher rate may be related to close family culture and our high co-morbidities, which could lower the immune system,” said Dr Hoa Nguyen, former chairman of the governor’s physician advisory group.
He attributes the increase to the lifting of restrictions on social gatherings such as weddings and funerals, and believes Guam may have returned to normal prematurely when the Delta variant hit the island.
“You have to look at the number of tests we do,” says Berg, who pointed out that Guam’s testing rate is higher than any other state in the United States. “This is a good thing, and these figures should not be taken out of context.”
He added that the people who died despite their full vaccination all had multiple co-morbidities.
Dr Peter Lombard, a member of the advisory group, attributed the high rate of breakthrough cases to the vaccine’s declining efficacy six months after its administration.
“I hope the data is real. Is this now a cause for alarm? That’s the question, “he said.” One thing you need to do is look for other places that have good vaccination rates and a high vaccine allocation early on.
“Looking at the vaccine distribution and the high volume of vaccines being administered in Guam, I suspect this is because we have a larger vaccine population early on and the vaccine effectiveness declined earlier than in others. States. “
Lombard also said that a premature lifting of restrictions was partly to blame for the Covid surge.
Lombard and Berg agreed that Guam had benefited from its high vaccination rate, with Lombard saying the number of cases in Guam would have been three times worse without the vaccination campaign.
Berg said that despite the recent wave of Covid, “if you look at the death rate of the population, we’re still doing well – that’s an accomplishment in itself.”
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