08/25/2020 - 17:55
- Clarín.com
- Society
"The goal has to be to flatten the curve and bring the number of coronavirus cases down for several weeks . To reduce deaths, lower the occupancy of beds in intensive care and the stress on medical personnel before loosening the measures and initiate a reopening of different activities and businesses , with less confinement ".
This is how Carisa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization, responded to Clarín's question about how it should be to get out of mandatory isolation that has been in the AMBA for more than five months. It was this Tuesday, at a virtual press conference of that body.
Regarding Argentina, Marcos Espinal, in charge of the Department of Communicable Diseases of PAHO, also maintained that "it still has a high incidence of new cases , while Chile managed to lower that curve and even Brazil is tending downward."
"America is a region in which, in many cases, health, social problems and economic problems must be considered at the same time . We must keep these three axes in balance and save lives, and only with that advanced can we think of a reopening ", Etienne explained, and emphasized:" As there are reopens, the prevention, social distancing and handwashing measures must obviously be upheld, and that reopening will not mean that we have reached the end of this fight, which will have several rounds. "
Along the same lines, Espinal added: "We cannot rule out a second wave , so we must work on an effective testing and tracking policy to detect the resurgence of cases in time."
The head of the Pan-American organization stressed that between July 1 and August 22, America went from 5.3 million cases of coronavirus to 12.5 million positives . "The United States, Brazil, Peru, Mexico and Argentina are among the 10 most affected countries in the world at this time," said the official, and reflected: "The mere figures can desensitize us but we cannot lose sight of the fact that behind these figures there are lives : in the last six months deaths in the Americas doubled compared to last year. "
"The measures to slow the growth of cases are confinement, social distancing and the limit on social gatherings. In many countries - Etienne preferred not to give examples - the opposite happened: sanitary measures were relaxed, shops were opened and some were even prepare to reopen their schools. It is a disconnection between the epidemiological curve and the regulations that are established, and that disconnection is not good at all, "said the official.
Among two policies that the PAHO director decided to highlight are the localized confinement that Chile implemented in different areas of its territory and the policy of tracing contacts of positive cases that the Bahamas carried out. "In June Chile saw a very strong increase in cases: they expanded testing, isolated and there were specific confinements, and for six weeks they have maintained the decline in their cases. They are data-based approaches that make it possible to overcome crises,. "she said.
In the conference they gave, PAHO officials highlighted the importance of the participation of Argentina and Mexico in the production of the vaccine developed by the AstraZeneca laboratory and the University of Oxford, as well as the involvement of several countries on the continent - also included Argentina - participate in phase 3 clinical trials of the search for this vaccine.
And they warned of possible long-term consequences of the pandemic. "We will have to see the effects of this process on mental health, and also the fall in physical activity caused by sedentary confinement, added to eating disorders, could lead to an increase in the obesity rate in the region" Espinal said.
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