The Epidemiology Manager of the Departmental Health Service (Headquarters) Santa Cruz, Carlos Hurtado, reported that in the past epidemiological week 5, which ended on Saturday, February 5, the cases fell below 1,000 daily and celebrated the drop in positivity to 17%from an average of around 50% between December 2021 and January of this year.
Last weekend the lowest number of cases of the fourth wave was reported, 416 on Saturday and 357 yesterday, but it is good to remember that the laboratories work at their minimum capacity on those days.
Although the statistics are beginning to be encouraging, Hurtado acknowledged that there is concern about the opening of the parties. “Let’s not expose ourselves at parties that opened without control, it’s something that we are concerned because if the situation continues like this, we would soon be talking about a fifth wave”, he warned.
disturbing numbers
The new confirmed cases fell, but the occupation of beds in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) remains high. Until Saturday it remained at 116, almost the same number of the peak of the third and second waveand intubated people exceeded 80 beds.
Already yesterday the outlook improved, as the Headquarters report reported 96 ICU patients, 68 of them connected to a respirator. According to these reports, from one day to the next, 20 people left the ICU, either due to improvement or death.
Also, on Saturday ten deaths were reported, most of them women, unvaccinated and elderly. Yesterday, there were two deaths, men without a vaccine, one older than 60 years.
Regarding the incidence of cases in the provinces, on Saturday 13 municipalities appeared in the reports, and on Sunday they went to seven.
While in the Santa Cruz capital the numbers dropped, there are municipalities with worrying data, such as Camiri, Montero and Charagua. In the case of Camiri, Hurtado said that has been declared in disaster by Covid-19; on Saturday it reported 49, and yesterday it rose to 58 new positives.
Vaccination
Until the weekend, Headquarters reported almost 3.5 million doses of vaccines applied. Eight months after the arrival of the immunizers in the country, the 73% of the department’s target population already has the first dose and another 59% the complete regimen.
In minors, with one foot in the classroom, the statistics remain low in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. According to the municipal secretary of Health, Roberto Vargas, 17% of children between 5 and 11 years old have been vaccinated with a second dose, and 35% of adolescents between 12 and 17 years old.
Vargas reported that campaigns will begin this week with vaccination staff in the educational units of the four health networks, with the aim of expanding coverage.
To the parents who refuse to vaccinate their children, Vargas asked that they immunize them. “It is important to have good coverage to return to classes,” he said, and also announced that fluoridation campaigns and registration with each one’s clinical sheet will be carried out.
