The use of a mask, distancing and ventilation of spaces must become a habit.
Two years have passed since the start of the health emergency by COVID-19 in Ecuador and, although the Ministry of Health had announced the possibility of stopping wearing the mask in public spaces, the Holy Spirit University of Specialties (UEES) confirmed the presence of cfive cases of the ómicron sublineage, BA.2, in Guayaquil.
The Pichincha College of Physicians (CMP) said that the behavior of the subvariant in the country should continue to be analyzed. The experts pointed out that it is necessary to maintain biosecurity measures and applying the vaccines against COVID-19.
“The less the virus circulates, the less transmission there is, the more population is vaccinated, fewer variants we will have. Variants occur when there is a lot of transmission and the virus is constantly mutating into a new variant,” he said. Greta Munozinfectologist.
three kind of protection
Byron Nunezinfectologist and professor, said that the living with the virus becomes complex for the countryand that requires three important actions:
First, a suitable epidemiological surveillance. “It should be in real time, at least in the provinces,” said Núñez. To that, add the genomic surveillance of new variants and the molecular one, with PCR tests in the population.
The second element is optimal health-hospital responsewhich means that in the event of any outbreak there is timely care in hospitals, general wards, intensive care units and the outpatient system.
The third area is to arrive with the vaccination to more than 90% of the population, highlighting that the vulnerable must “receive as many reinforcements as necessary, but only them, not the entire population,” said Núñez.
Doctors agree that it should be maintained, like a habit measures such as face mask, distancing and ventilation of all environments.
For Núñez, the time has come to a cultural change in actions of citizens inside and outside their homes.
Two years of the pandemic
“In these two years of pandemic, the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) has had an adequate track record in terms of achieving a mass immunization”, even promoting the application of the booster dose (third dose), highlighted Núñez.
“Several criteria are needed” to relax the measures, such as the mandatory use of masks. And to reach the necessary rates, more health promotion and prevention is required, as well as more personal responsibility (at the citizen level), in order not to continue transmitting the virus, he emphasized Carlos Cardenaspresident of the Pichincha College of Physicians. (AVV)
