Ómicron stresses the Mexican health system with more than 50,000 new infections

A health worker holds an empty syringe in Santa Catarina, in the Mexican state of Nuevo León, on January 19, 2021. DANIEL BECERRIL (REUTERS)

The pandemic continues to rise in Mexico with nearly 160,000 covid infections in the last three days, according to the latest daily report on the progress of the virus. The country has added this Tuesday 50,343 confirmed cases and 278 confirmed deaths from coronavirus. The fourth wave of infections driven by ómicron continues to put pressure on the health system and 38% of hospital occupancy is already registered in general beds, one point more than in the last day, when a new record of positive diagnoses was broken. Seven states exceed 50% occupancy in intensive care units and 125 hospitals are over 95% saturated, according to official data.

After chaining several records of infections during this month, the focus of concern has gradually moved towards hospitalizations and the bottlenecks caused by omicron in the country's hospital infrastructure. The northern state of Zacatecas, for example, registers almost 89% occupancy in its intensive care units (ICU), the highest percentage in the entire territory. The neighboring State of Aguascalientes, one of the smallest entities, ranks second with more than 85% saturation. Coahuila, another demarcation that borders Zacatecas, has its critical care units at 77% occupancy. More than half of the intensive care beds with ventilators are also occupied in Durango, Chihuahua, San Luis Potosí and Querétaro, given the drop in temperatures,the rise in other respiratory diseases and the most intense escalation in infections that has been seen since the outbreak of the pandemic.

In Mexico City, the engine of the epidemic in the country with one in five people infected with covid, there are 14 hospitals of the Mexican Social Security Institute with 100% saturation. Some include cornerstones of the country's health system such as the Siglo XXI Medical Center and the Dr. Manuel Gea González General Hospital, both with virtually no availability of general beds. The Tláhuac General Hospital, which cares for citizens without social security and is operated by the Ministry of Health, is also fully occupied. These occupancy percentages not only affect the care of covid patients, but also of other ailments and surgeries. In public health institutions, which also apply covid tests and are a necessary filter to request sick leave due to covid,crowds and long lines have been seen in recent weeks. More than 1,700 people in the capital are hospitalized, although not all with covid as the main condition.

One of the beds still available for patients with covid was for the sister of Mr. Julio, who was admitted last Tuesday night after testing positive for covid at the Eduardo Liceaga General Hospital in the Cuauhtémoc delegation. The positive diagnosis of covid-19 in the 47-year-old woman came collaterally after presenting pain in the gallbladder. His brother recounts that in those first moments they did not even cross the idea of ​​the coronavirus and since they did not have affiliation with the IMSS or the ISSTE, they decided to take their relative to the Balbuena Hospital, attached to the Health Institute for Well-being (Insabi). “When we got there, when they checked her temperature, they told us that she had to take a covid test and that, if she did not have covid, they were going to operate on her,” says Julio, a native of Mexico City.

The 43-year-old man claims that in this health center the doctors assured them that they did not have tests available to detect the virus, so he and his sister had to go out in the middle of the night to look for a

to confirm the diagnosis .

. Without the possibility of paying for a test of more than 3,000 pesos in a private laboratory, her only alternative was to go to the Mexico City airport to find out if her sister had the virus or not, since her surgery depended on it.

Despite having two vaccines, Julio's sister was positive. With confirmation in hand, the second challenge for his family was to find a bed in a public hospital, one of his relatives was the one who managed to get him admitted to the Eduardo Liceaga General Hospital, in the Cuauhtémoc mayor's office. This Thursday the doctors report her stable so they will proceed to operate on her in the next few hours, however, the patient's prognosis indicates that she will remain hospitalized for another 14 days.

“These were difficult times, of uncertainty. We cannot see her because she is in the covid area, but we will be here to receive reports,” says her brother from the hospital. Juan does not rule out that his sister has been infected with coronavirus after having contact with acquaintances who have not been vaccinated. “I would tell those people who do not get vaccinated and who do not care about their lives to think about others, we have to do it (vaccinated) because we live in a society”, ditch.

Federal authorities point out that, although ómicron is much more contagious than other variants of the coronavirus, hospitalizations have not increased as in the other waves of infections due to vaccination. At the peak of contagion, however, the large volume of infected people has implied a gradual increase in people who need specialized medical attention or who have become seriously ill with covid and need to be hospitalized, but cannot go to a private service.

“Given the time of evolution of the disease, we would expect that it will probably be this week or the next when there will be the greatest impact on hospital occupancy and possibly we will have a better idea of ​​what is going to be happening with people who have a serious illness. ”, Samuel Ponce de León, an infectologist at UNAM, said in an interview with this newspaper.

22% of the ventilated beds in the entire country are already occupied, two points more than in the last day.

subscribe here

to the

of EL PAÍS México and receive all the informative keys of the current affairs of this country