The city of Rio de Janeiro recorded around 2,000 cases of covid-19 a day this week, and hospitalizations resulting from the disease more than tripled in four days. The information was given by the municipal secretary of Health, Daniel Soranz, in an interview today (11). 
According to him, the city has 286 health units responsible for diagnostic tests, which reached 10,000 in a single day. The positivity rate, which was at 6% in the second week of Octoberjumped to 29% this week.
“We have had a very significant increase in the number of cases in the last two weeks. In the last two days, we have identified almost 2,000 cases daily, with more than 10,000 tests performed in a single day, and the positivity rate has been rising. So, at this point, we still don’t have any increase in cases like what we’ve recorded in the past, but it’s significant and puts the whole system on alert.”
According to Soranz, the Municipal Health Department is currently evaluating whether there is a need to mobilize special places for testing, as occurred in January with the peak of the Ômicron variant of Sars-CoV-2. At the time, the city performed more than 330,000 tests in a single week and had a moving average of over 20,000 confirmed cases per day.
“We are evaluating, if necessary, we will be able to mobilize more testing points, we had some specific places, with an increase in the flow of people, but in most of these places there were very few with respiratory symptoms”. who wanted to be tested because they had contact with other contaminated people.
The recommendation of the secretary is that only look for the test who has respiratory symptoms. She says she doesn’t study to return with the mandatory use of masks.
“Our recommendation is that people with respiratory symptoms wear a mask. And, if possible, people who have some kind of comorbidity or have not yet been vaccinated should also wear a mask,” said the secretary.
admissions
Soranz points out that there has been a significant increase in hospitalizations for covid-19 in the last four days, from 28 to 88 people, which reaffirms the alert made yesterday (10) by Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz).
“The city of Rio of January notified the entire surveillance system, we have an increase in hospitalizations and we continue to monitor to see if this increase will continue. Our main concern is that we know that the people who are hospitalized, who become seriously ill, are those who did not take the booster dose”.
According to the secretariat panelsmonitoring the new coronavirus, in January the city reached to have more than 350 people hospitalized in Intensive Care Units (ICU) and 540 in the ward as a result of the disease.
Vaccination
The secretariat reported that it no longer has doses of CoronaVac in stock, the only one authorized for application in children aged 3 and 4 years. As a result, vaccination in this age group is suspended until a new shipment arrives.
“It’s over. Unfortunately, we had to interrupt the vaccination of 3 and 4 year olds due to lack of doses of CoronaVac. Children aged 5 to 11 are still vaccinated with the pediatric Pfizer vaccine, which is available,” Soranz explained.
The State Department of Health reported that it awaits the sending of doses of CoronaVac by the Ministry of Health to make available to municipalities. The ministry informed that it has acquired another 1 million doses for the vaccination of children from 3 to 4 years of age, which will be sent to the states as soon as they are released by the National Institute for Quality Control in Health (INCQS).
Soranz also warned that vaccination coverage for children aged 5 to 11 years is very low, with 62% of the target audience receiving the two doses of the basic regimen.
“With this new wave of the variant, BQ.1, we ask people who have not taken their children aged 5 to 11 to be vaccinated, to look for a health unit. We also insist that people who have not taken the booster dose look for a unit to take”.
The first booster dose was given to 75.5% of the adult population and only 35.4% sought the posts to receive the second booster.
