The Undersecretary of Public Health, María Teresa Valenzuela, unveiled the new strategy to combat covid-19 which was called “If I get sick, I’ll take care of you.” This is based on the new positive cases giving notice to the people with whom they were in contact without the necessary measures, with the aim of testing them. This is due to the fact that given the consequences of the omicron variant, traceability becomes more complex compared to the previous variants.
The authority announced this new plan on Radio Futuro, where it also spoke about a possible deadline to end the pandemic as it was done in Denmark or go on to declare the virus a flu as it is intended in Spain.
Regarding the new strategy, Valenzuela emphasized that “this is a plan against this variant. Obviously, when we overcome this great wave of cases that has arrived, we reassess and once again see the plan. We know that testing, traceability, and isolation is a fundamental strategy for managing this pandemic, but this specific case has been exclusively due to the high transmissibility of this virus, which does not allow the system to reach contacts.”
Regarding a possible total control of the pandemic, as is already being seen in Europe, the authority indicated that “we have not discussed it, we have not talked about it, because each country has to evaluate its capabilities.”
He also added that “our capacities, if we compare ourselves with all these countries, the United Kingdom, Denmark… our country has a number of doctors, nurses, critical beds, which are under the OECD countries, our system is like this.”
“Deep down what we have to thank is that we have a highly trained staff, and we have had the great grace of having the vaccines available in the most timely manner possible,” he said.
Following this line, he maintained that “despite being a country that is far behind in terms of human resources, system capacity, infrastructure, and critical beds… the fact that we have had the possibility of having this amount of vaccines and having this vaccination coverage, and now with the fourth dose… we have been pioneers”.
Regarding the various cases of parties and mass gatherings where little care has been shown regarding the virus, Valenzuela stated that “we understand that there is a desire to celebrate, to get together, but that has to be complying with self-care measures, not crowding, staying in ventilated places (…) and the use of a mask, which is a tremendous protector”.
He also added that “another great risk factor at this time is parties in closed places, where we know that there is no proper ventilation, and on the other hand, since they drink, they take off their masks and they are places of very high risk. I would make a special appeal to them, because people with risk factors get sick because of them.”
Finally, the undersecretary made a call to the population, inviting them to “reflect and collaborate. We want to get out of this, but we all want to get out.”
