“You have to rationalize the use of tests, it is expensive and it also depends on the type of tests you have”, this is how the clinical researcher and National Secretary of the Senacyt, Eduardo Ortega Barría, referred to the increase in Covid-19 infections and the influx of people who have come to perform swabs.
It recommended that the asymptomatic person should not be tested. “If it is a contact of a positive person, they go to quarantine and do not take the test until 5 days later, and if it is negative, they can leave,” he explained.
As for the omicron variant, he said that it is 3 to 5 times more efficient when transmitting, “the transmission is so intense that it is almost impossible to trace it.”
The doctor expressed that we spent the last week of 2021 with approximately 80,000 tests, and the first week of this year with more than 100,000. In one week we had an increase of 20 thousand tests.
“Before yesterday we had 23 thousand tests and of those we had 27.5% positive. This is going to continue to increase, we believe that we still have two weeks left, at least of an increase in significant community transmission of omicron”, he specified.
He added that it has gone from having more than 2,000 active cases to 38,900 active cases. “The last time I saw it, and if you add the people in quarantine, it is a significant number,” concluded Ortega Barría.
