After the peak in demand for testing for the diagnosis of covid-19 observed last week in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, demand in the public network had a significant decrease this week, according to the Municipal Health Department (SMS).
“In the peak period, between January 12th and 14th, Primary Care units and testing centers performed more than 100,000 tests per day, with a positivity rate that reached 46%. in the last three days [segunda, terça e quarta-feira]the numbers of tests dropped to 56,000, 38,000 and 33,000, respectively, with a positivity of 30% on the last day,” the ministry said.
The numbers differ from presented in the panels SMS, but follow the same downward trend. The testing panel indicates that in the first week of the year, 85,297 antigen tests were carried out, the so-called rapid test, and that it is more available on the public network.
In the second week of the month there were 218,512, falling to 197,825 in the week of January 16-22. The latest update indicates that 146,974 antigen tests were carried out in the epidemiological week ending today (29). Test positivity jumped from 13% in the last week of 2021 to 43% in the first week of 2022, to 46% the following week and has now dropped to 37%.
Covid-19 cases registered this year in the city exceed 266,000, which represents 90% of the total cases of the whole of last year. January had so far 1,283 serious cases and recorded 206 deaths from the disease.
In the state network, the State Department of Health (SES) reports that it carried out 54,975 tests in the 13 testing centers installed by the government since January 7. Currently, the positivity rate is at 18%.
According to SES, contamination by the Ômicron variant seems to have reached its peak in the Metropolitan Region and is now moving to other areas of the state. “The Secretariat observes a plateau in the transmission of Covid-19 in the Metropolitan Regions le ll; and increase in epidemiological indicators in the interior of the state”.
Risk map
The Covid-19 Risk Map, released last night (28) by the SES, indicates that the state of Rio de Janeiro is in an orange flag, with moderate risk for the disease. The comparison is between epidemiological week 3 of 2022, from January 16 to 22, with the first.
Of the nine regions in the state, seven are in orange: Baixada Litorânea, Centro Sul, Médio Paraíba, Norte, Serrana and Metropolitans I and II. The Northwest and Baía da Ilha Grande regions are in red flag, with a high risk of transmission of covid-19.
According to the Secretary of State for Health, Alexandre Chieppe, despite the high number of cases, with data from January this year being 181% higher than those recorded in the same period in 2021, the severity of the disease and the deaths resulting from it are below, demonstrating the effectiveness of vaccination.
“Ômicron, which is the variant in circulation, has a high rate of transmissibility, however, with the advancement of the vaccination campaign, we are observing that the number of severe cases and deaths has not increased in the same proportion. In view of this scenario, we activated our contingency plan and have already reversed 338 beds, 117 of which are ICU. We can convert more beds in the coming days, as needed. In addition, we expanded testing capacity for covid-19 and temporarily suspended elective surgeries.”
In January last year, there were 86,731 cases, 8,797 hospitalizations and 4,146 deaths from covid-19 in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Between January 1st and 27th of this year, 243,756 cases were reported, 1,849 hospitalizations and 358 deaths.
Since the beginning of the Risk Map disclosure, in July 2020, the best moment in the state occurred in the December 29, 2021 update, when only the Middle Paraíba region was in yellow and all the others in green. The worst moment was on April 1 of last year, with four regions in red and the other five in purple, at very high risk.
