Juliet Roffo
08/02/2020 - 19:36
- Clarín.com
- Society
The pandemic outbreak of coronavirus in Argentina has just registered another brand: the 200,000 confirmed cases in the country were reached - and exceeded . 152 days passed since it became known that the virus had entered the territory through Ezeiza and from Italy. The barrier of 100,000 cases was broken on July 12, after 131 days of the first infected. The one of 200,000, this Sunday, 21 days later.
"What do 200.00 cases mean? They mean that this is a virus that is in society , especially in its large urban centers , which is where the impact is highest. Also that this is a virus that spreads in popular neighborhoods , where people do not have access to telework and most of them do changas or are self-employed, and the conditions of isolation are not in place. It means, for now, that although there are such a number of cases, the health system to date has responded well, it is tense but it is not collapsed or saturated . Above all, it means that we must continue to take the necessary preventive measures to prevent this possible collapse of the health system, "says infectious medicine doctor Eduardo López, a member of the expert committee that advises the Ministry of Health of the Nation.
It suffices to review data from the reports that the Health portfolio issues daily to monitor what happened between 100,000 and 200,000 cases. On July 12, when that first mark was reached, the community circulation of the virus represented 48.1% of the confirmed cases, while in this Saturday's report it was 54.9% : it grew almost 7 percentage points . The cases in which the person can not identify how he was infected are increasing.
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Watch the SpecialThe specific weight that the City and the Province have when adding cases to the national total has changed in recent weeks. On July 12, there were 53,551 infected in Buenos Aires territory and 38,335 in the Buenos Aires area: 53.5% and 38% respectively, compared to the 100,166 confirmed that there were in Argentina up to that day. On July 24, when the 150,000 cases were reached - and exceeded - the Province represented 57.8% of the total and the City 33.9% . This Saturday, according to the Health report, the Province had grown to 60.1% of cases across the country, and the City had dropped to 30.9% .
It should be noted that the city estimates a population of 3.5 million people and in the province, 17 million people: more than four times. And that around 13 million Buenos Aires residents live in the Conurbano, where 9 out of every ten cases of coronavirus occur in the Province. At the same time, according to the last available census of 2010, the City has an estimated population density of 14,450 inhabitants per square kilometer, while in some parts of the first cordon of Greater Buenos Aires -the most affected so far- this rate it does not exceed 10,000 inhabitants per square kilometer: in Lanús it is around 9,500, in Vicente López and Tres de Febrero it is almost 8,000, in Lomas de Zamora it is about 7,100 people per square kilometer, and in La Matanza, 5,400.
"The Province is between two and three weeks behind the City in the evolution of its curve, which in the case of Buenos Aires is more attacked . What happens is that it is much more difficult to carry out an effective quarantine in popular neighborhoods, than in the Conurbano are more than in the City, although the density of porteños is higher.Argentina is a country with 35% or 40% poverty , and many of the people who live in these conditions are in Greater Buenos Aires: they are exposed to greater overcrowding, higher index of a single bathroom use for the whole family, and having to go out to work, to do a joke. The long Argentine quarantine is compared to the European one but it is not said that the social matrix is totally different, "says López.
"In the City we are going to start to see that the cases drop from here to a couple of weeks . It is important that we start working on campaigns that no longer have to do so much with the initial fear as with the idea that we are going to have to coexist with this virus and preventive measures must continue to be taken, but the emotional impact and side effects of this quarantine must also be addressed , from the drop in vaccination rates in boys to the increase in deaths from cardiovascular disease that they could have avoided if they were not afraid to attend a guard ", describes the infectologist Roberto Debbag, vice president of the Latin American Society of Pediatric Infectology.
Debbag proposes: "It is time to start thinking about social bubbles . That two family nuclei agree to bond with each other, without bonding with other nuclei, so these people can be in contact with other people who are not their cohabitants. This It will have a positive emotional impact on kids and also on adults. "
Regarding the situation of the health system, on July 12 there were 735 patients hospitalized in intensive care for the coronavirus throughout the country , while 1,128 people were reported in this situation on Saturday : it grew by 53% . How did that impact on the occupation of the health system? On July 12, as reported by Salud, the Intensive Care Units of the AMBA were 59.5% occupied, while this Saturday the rate was 64.5% . It grew 5 percentage points, although the rate remains very stable in the latest reports: on July 24, when the barrier of 150,000 cases in the country was broken, the occupation of the ICUs in the AMBA was 64.3%. In July, beds were added to these services to desaturate the system.
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