After an end of 2020 with uncertainty due to an increase in coronavirus cases that triggered in the first half of 2021 with thousands of daily infections, an ITC required at the limit of its capacity and a large number of deaths, Uruguay prepares for the holidays of 2021 in a totally different context: 75% of the population vaccinated with two doses, 40% with three, cases of CTI and deaths in their lowest numbers, and a number of cases that grows but is far from the worst moments of the pandemic. Despite the context, scientists call for maintaining care.
Compared, On December 21, 2020, the limitation to the right of assembly began to apply, which allowed the government dissolve clumps. That day too the total closure of the borders by land, sea and air was confirmed, and the suspension of religious ceremonies until January 10. The Honorary Scientific Advisory Group (GACH) recommended on those dates celebrate the holidays without toasts or snacks, and where possible in an open place with people from the closest circle. Vaccination was only a possibility and parties or massive events were only talked about clandestine ones.
In December 2021 the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) sees the situation as controlled, and does not plan to recommend new measures to face the movement and the festivities of Christmas Eve, Christmas and New Year. “If we comply with the existing recommendations, we are absolutely convinced that everything will work out as it has been up to now”, said to The Observer the general director of Health of the ministry, Miguel Asqueta.
The sociology graduate and former GACH member Fernando Filgueira affirmed The Observer that Uruguay is in a favorable situation that allows keeping everything open with vaccination, non-pharmacological care in closed spaces (hand hygiene and ventilation, for example), and the contact tracing, facts that “they came to stay” long-term. For Filgueira these will be the first parties of the “new normal”, even if “in a transitional stage” (with a world experiencing a rebound in cases due to the new omicron variant) until covid-19 becomes an “endemic disease.”
On the other hand, the pediatric infectious disease specialist and also a former GACH member Álvaro Galiana assured The Observer that They are “afraid” of these parties because they are not giving “importance” to the omicron results in the world and its possible “delay effect” in Uruguay, which implies that what happens abroad then reaches the country. “We are better than last year, but the game did not end”, he detailed.
“It’s all written”
AFP
Christmas celebrations in Barcelona in 2019
The director of Salud Asqueta explained that “What lies ahead, these days and what remains of the pandemic, is to insist with the existing recommendations”, and emphasized that “there is nothing new because nothing new has to be done”Therefore, the MSP does not think of any particular message for these holidays. “It’s all written”, he concluded.
Thus, mass parties and events, of between 3,000 and 5,000 people, require assistance with the complete vaccination scheme, can last up to 7 hours and do not impose strict sanitary measures, nor are they very present in the implementation. For event halls, the limit is 800 people with vaccination as a requirement, and 600 without vaccination.
The capacity is 100% for open events of any kind that require the two vaccines against the coronavirus since November 15 the government enabled this level of capacity for the finals of the Copa Sudamericana and Libertadores.
“You don’t have to give yourself away”
Municipality of Maldonado
The vaccination and the apparent less seriousness of the omicron strain with respect to the previous variants of concern leads Filgueira to think that “it does not seem necessary to close” more activities
For the sociologist Filgueira Sustaining capacity and non-pharmacological measures is recommended, but not restricting mobility and closing different sectors, because vaccination and the apparent lower severity of the omicron strain with regard to the previous variants of concern leads him to think that “it doesn’t seem necessary to close”.
He said that if it became necessary, Uruguay should have learned that medical care and face-to-face education should not be limited, because can generate “intertemporal” problems: failure to capture HIV / AIDS cases and detect uterine cancer cases in time, in addition to educational problems, for example.
For her part, Galiana warned that “do not give yourself away” in this week of parties, and He called for “keeping the circle as closed as possible” and also “maintaining sanitary measures” in closed and unfamiliar gatherings. To people who go to dances or mass parties, he recommended that they “take care of themselves” and, if they did not, “get vaccinated with 2 or 3 doses of the vaccine”.
Children
Camilo dos Santos
Galiana recalled that omicron “can generate severity” in babies and children
The pediatric infectologist Galiana expressed that children have been a “source of contagion” in recent weeks, with some outbreaks that occurred at end-of-year school parties, and called “be attentive to the symptoms” of coronavirus of minors.
Minors between 5 and 11 years old will begin to be vaccinated with the pediatric dose of Pfizer in February, prior to the start of classes in 2022. On January 3, 200 thousand of these vaccines will arrive, confirmed this Monday the Secretary of the Presidency, Álvaro Delgado.
Galiana cautioned that even though omicron is less severe than other strains, “can be severe” in infants and children, so he considered that it is necessary that the population give it “more importance” to the current global situation of the coronavirus.
