The increase in infections of covid-19 perceived in Nicaragua for five weeks is attributable to the omicron variant of concern, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) reported this Wednesday. to a question sent by CONFIDENTIAL.
As explained by the doctor, Sylvain Aldighieri, PAHO Incident Manager for COVID-19, the increase in cases is occurring throughout the Central American region, not only in Nicaragua, since the end of December and 92% of the genomic sequences reported by these countries are of the omicron variant.
“What corresponds to the information directly from Nicaragua and the publication of sequences, most are from omicron,” he explained during the weekly conference.
Minsa reports 104 weekly cases; Observatory registers 290
This Tuesday, the Ministry of Health (Minsa) reported 104 new cases, which represents an increase of 27% compared to the previous week and is the highest number reported since November 2021, when the second wave triggered by the delta strain decreased. after three months of constant increase.
For its part, the Citizen Observatory has also reported an increase in infections and suspicious deaths from covid-19. In the latest report published this Saturday, they reported 290 cases and three deaths recorded between January 27 and February 9, 2022.
“We continue to receive reports of suspected cases in minors and pregnant women. In addition, the presence of multiple suspicious cases in the same family nucleus is reported, ”they warned.
They also warn of an increase in infections among health personnel. In that period they identified at least 18 patients in the union. Infections in toilets had stopped after the second wave. The number of new cases and deaths could be higher because the Citizen Observatory lost the capacity to collect information due to the increase in repression and imprisonment.
Doctors from public and private hospitals confirmed to CONFIDENTIAL on the increase in cases since mid-January, mainly mild cases. Hospitalizations have seen a slight increase, but not compared to past waves.
Ómicron also leaves deaths in Central America
The director of PAHO, Carissa F. Etienne, lamented that during the omicron outbreak, countries did not use all the tools to slow down the spread and prevent infections, which triggered that now “we are handling a larger volume of cases than ever It had been seen before (…) Too many places in our region continued as they were before the wave,” he said.
Although ómicron showed characteristics of being more contagious and less aggressive than the other strains, the number of deaths in the region has increased during these first months of the year.
Israeli researcher Ariel Karlinsky, who has studied mortality and excess deaths from covid-19 globally, warned this week that “preliminary data and estimates for January 2022 show that total deaths (and excess) increased considerably in many Latin American countries. Is it all covid? Is it something else?” he questions.
For his part, Dr. Aldighieri explained that the increase in deaths clearly observed in Central America as in North America reflects the natural behavior of the disease. “It may take three to four weeks from the time the illness starts, there is hospitalization and severe illness develops and then deaths, but we expect deaths to start to decline.”
Minsa continues without providing information on Nicaragua
There is no official data on Nicaragua that allows us to know if ómicron is having an impact on lethality. The Ministry of Health (Minsa) has kept the number of weekly deaths frozen at one since October 2020. The figure did not change even when the country suffered the second wave, between August and October 2021, which was greater than the first.
There is also no information on deaths from other causes that make it possible to know if there is an excess of mortality because the Minsa authorities have not updated the Health Map where that information was provided.
The only data available until last week was on pneumonia, which registered a sustained increase since mid-January, but this week the spokesperson and vice president, Rosario Murillo, assured that they already had a nine percent reduction. Without disclosing the number of how many deaths from this cause occurred in the last seven days.
