The Ministry of Health (Minsa) completed this Tuesday four consecutive weeks of reporting a sustained increase in infections by covid-19. In its weekly report, the health authority indicated that, in the last seven days, 82 new cases were identified, representing 39% more than those admitted the previous week.
The increase in cases coincides with the circulation of the omicron variant in the country. According to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), “most of the positive samples for SARS-CoV-2 (carried out in Nicaragua) correspond to that variant and to a lesser extent to the delta variant.”
The number of deaths from covid-19 remains frozen at one for 70 weeks. However, deaths from pneumonia, which the Minsa has used to reduce official statistics, have increased in parallel with infections of SAR-CoV-2 and its variants.
An analysis of CONFIDENTIALbased on the brief epidemiological report of the Minsa, which is read every Monday by the state spokesperson and vice president, Rosario Murillo, reveals that between January 18 and February 7, 2022, there were 21 deaths from pneumonia to give a total of 26 so far this year.
The behavior of these deaths shows a sustained increase, because in the first 15 days of 2022 there were only five deaths. But, since then, an average of one death per day has been recorded from this cause.
Cases of pneumonia have also increased. On January 17, 2022, it was confirmed that there were 2,428 cases, which represents 34% less than in the same period of 2021. However, this Monday the accumulated number of cases increased to 6,353. Of these, there were 1,360 in the last week.
After it became known that hundreds of deaths from covid-19 were attributed to pneumonia to reduce the statistics of the pandemic, the Ortega government has hidden the deaths from this cause and also from diabetes, hypertension and heart attacks.
The Minsa stopped publishing this information in the epidemiological bulletins and Murillo reads a brief report that the Health authorities pass him on the epidemics. Most of the time he reports the progress of this disease as a percentage and does not reveal the total number, which prevents weekly monitoring of deaths.
In the five weeks of this year, it has only revealed the total number of pneumonia cases and deaths twice, in the January 17 report and in the February 7 report. This allowed to know the increase in deaths.
Consultations and hospitalizations increase
Officially, the cases of covid-19 began to rise in the second week of January, after the Minsa reported a systematic decrease in infections for three months in a row, and independent doctors alerted – since the end of December – the possible circulation of this variant. .
Medical sources told CONFIDENTIAL that hospitalizations and consultations for respiratory diseases suspected of covid-19 have increased, but there are still not as many serious cases as was seen in the first and second waves.
Until Thursday, February 3, at the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Estelí, there were at least ten patients hospitalized and of these, two were in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) due to covid-19. At the German Nicaraguan Hospital (HAN), a national reference for the care of covid-19 patients, some 50 people remain in ‘covid rooms’ and four in the ICU.
In the HAN, consultations for flu symptoms have reached an average of 60 daily consultations and of these, around 20 correspond to patients with suspected coronavirus symptoms.
Observatory with less capacity
The COVID-19 Citizen Observatory, which during the first two years of the pandemic has filled the gap in official information on the pandemic, also registers a slight increase. However, since last November it has lost the capacity to report weekly.
The latest report indicates that from January 13 to 26, they identified 113 suspected cases of covid-19 and three deaths. Likewise, there were five infections in health personnel. “Since last November 17 we had not received reports of cases among health personnel,” they emphasize.
The World Health Organization (WHO) explained that the omicron variant appears to be less aggressive than the original virus and the other strains, but more contagious. Citizens who are not vaccinated are at greater risk of becoming seriously ill.
Last week alone there were seven million new cases in the Americas and more than 34,000 deaths. “Deaths increased for the fourth consecutive week in all subregions, showing an increase of 33% compared to the previous week,” explained PAHO Director Carissa F. Etienne.
Nicaragua adds 18,189 cases of covid-19, of which 228 occurred in the last four weeks and 223 deaths, one every week since October 2020. Likewise, the Minsa assures that 13,487 have already recovered. Meanwhile, the Citizen Observatory accumulates 31,505 cases and 5,973 suspicious deaths until January 26, 2022.
