Coronavirus in Argentina: how bed occupancy grows in 5 critical districts

Leo González Pérez

03/09/2020 - 15:35

• Clarín.com

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The coronavirus seems to have entered a

process for a few days

.

If until recently it appeared on the map of Argentina as a brutal red stain on the AMBA surrounded by huge blank surfaces, now, that has changed.

The epicenter of the pandemic continues in the Capital and the GBA, but other critical sources are also growing.

In this scenario, the provinces of Córdoba, Santa Fe, Río Negro, Mendoza and Jujuy are among those with the most cases of covid-19 registered in the last three weeks: in that period they at least

.

What is the situation in these regions of the occupation of intensive care beds?

Jujuy

Of the five districts, Jujuy appears to be the worst off.

There, the occupation of intensive care (IT) beds has been very high for several days.

, according to the Jujuy Health Minister Gustavo Bouhid.

The province is recruiting doctors to deal with the emergency and is supplying oxygen in their homes to some patients to

.

In a press teleconference, in the opportunity to present a salary increase for health personnel, Bouhid said that if the spread of the virus was not mitigated, it would be very difficult for the health system to provide a satisfactory response to the pandemic.

The

that the province's public sector now has, he said, may not be enough.

And if the rate of infections does not decrease, it will not reach the places that the State is hiring in private clinics, the official emphasized.

The Guillermo Paterson hospital, in San Pedro de Jujuy, one of the most demanded in the care of the pandemic.

Photo Government of Jujuy.

And then, he explained: "The curve is coming down in Libertador, it has gone down in Perico, but it continues to rise in San Pedro and continues to rise in the capital, where there is much more population, so clearly

."

Santa Fe

The province of Santa Fe has 

(with respirators).

According to the provincial Ministry of Health, as of Tuesday, 81 of them were occupied by patients with coronavirus, that is, 8.5% of the total;

although the general occupation of those beds (due to any pathology) was 

.

As reported on Wednesday by Vice Governor Alejandra Rodenas, the

occurs in

, where the largest number of covid-19 cases are located.

There - they pointed out from the Rosario Health Secretariat - critical beds in the public sector are occupied by 85% and in the private sector by 70%, with both numbers increasing in recent days.

Roque Saenz Peña Hospital, in Rosario.

El Gran Rosario is a hot zone for covid-19.

Photo Juan José García.

"We are beginning the transition to a peak described with the case forecasts," said Rodenas about the epidemiological situation in the province.

In Rosario, the municipal health secretary, Leonardo Caruana, anticipated that they will have to implement

on the activities allowed so far if the availability of the system continues to drop.

According to information from the Santa Fe government, two weeks ago there were 47 people with covid-19 hospitalized in serious condition.

It follows from this that the number of occupied beds has

(from 47 to 81).

Black river

The province of Río Negro has 217 IT beds (29 per 100,000 inhabitants), of which 54 were available this Wednesday:

.

Of the 54 free beds, 14 were from Bariloche.

In General Roca (140 thousand inhabitants) there was a bed;

in Cipolletti (140 thousand inhabitants) there was also

.

In Viedma, the provincial capital (80 thousand inhabitants), there were thirteen free IT beds.

Río Negro had 1,770 people with covid-19 disease this Wednesday.

The localities with the most active cases were General Roca (411), Cipolletti (286) and Bariloche (223).

"In the department of General Roca there is

and, on average, the province is around 75% of the entire public-private health system that make up the care conglomerate," reported the Minister of Government and Río Negro Community, Rodrigo Buteler.

“

and added more than 400 workers to the hospitals to strengthen the system (…).

We have received respirators from the Nation and we bought others with our own resources that we are waiting to reach the province, ”he added.

Mendoza

The situation of occupation of intensive therapies in Mendoza worsened in August, due to the rise in covid-19 cases to an average of about 270 per day.

Thus, this Wednesday the record of daily cases was broken with 709 new patients;

and the accumulated total of cases reached

;

with 135 deaths since March.

New equipment to attend patients for the Hospital Carrillo de Mendoza.

Photo Ignacio Blanco / Los Andes.

The Government of Rodolfo Suarez ensures that the health system

still

with these figures.

However, an increase in the number of beds in hospitals was necessary, resorting to hospitalization of mild patients in hotels and even accepting the offer of a warehouse - totally isolated and monitored - from the metalworking company Impsa.

Mendoza, official sources report, has

(19.4 IT beds per 100,000 inhabitants).

According to the data reported on Tuesday by the provincial Health Minister, Ana Maria Nadal, the occupancy of critical beds was "80% in Greater Mendoza", and 68% in the entire provincial hospital capacity.

However, the opposition in Mendoza assures that the wine province has

the country.

"In six months, the number of therapy beds went from 250 to 300 and Mendoza is one of the provinces with the fewest beds, at a rate of 18 beds per 100,000 inhabitants," questioned Macarena Escudero, a former deputy of the Left Front.

Escudero considered "laughable" that since March only 80 IT beds have been added.

President Alberto Fernández will visit the province on Monday and Suarez said he asked for his help with supplies such as respirators.

“

: from greater funds, advances from the National Treasury.

Also respirators, higher supplies, etc.

We look forward to receiving them, "he said.

At the beginning of the pandemic, in March, the provincial government bought respirators that never arrived in Mendoza because the Ministry of Health of the Nation centralized the distribution of these supplies.

The governor said that they will buy 500 oxygen helmets, but that

.

Cordova

This Wednesday, the province of Córdoba reported that it already accumulates 9,377 cases of covid-19, with 132 deaths from the disease.

In its Sept. 2 report, the province noted that 857 of its critical adult unit beds were occupied;

This figure corresponds to patients treated for any pathology and represents an

in the public and private sectors of the province.

Of those 857 patients,

, which represents, says the provincial report, "18.6% of the total beds in the public and private sectors."

The figures show that the province of Córdoba presents a more relieved situation than others that registered a strong growth in covid-19 cases in recent weeks.

However, the province does not disclose the occupancy of IT beds by locality in its reports, which would allow us to observe if there is a critical focus.

At the time of publication of this note,

expected an official response on this issue.

Reports: Lucas Aranda, correspondent in Rosario;

Roxana Badaloni, correspondent in Mendoza and Claudio Andrade, correspondent in Bariloche.

LGP