The number of beds occupied with seriously ill patients suffering from Covid-19 is on the rise again, after three months in which it seemed the number of infections was going down; the virus began to rebound in Jalisco in June.
Hospitals located in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area, Puerto Vallarta, and Ocotlán are in the red; There are at least eight medical institutions that show that they are at 100% bed occupancy for the care of COVID-19 patience.
The General Hospital of IMSS in Puerto Vallarta is at 100% of its capacity in general beds for Covid-19 care, according to this Wednesday’s cut presented on the IRAG platform of the Federal Ministry of Health.
In addition, the Regional Hospital is 45% occupied in general beds for the care of Covid-19 patience and 73% in beds with a ventilator, which exceeds federal authority recommendations.
Health Authorities warned us a third wave of COVID-19 was coming
If we lower our guard and relax sanitary measures to prevent COVID-19, the “third wave” of the virus could arrive earlier than expected, Jalisco Health Secretary, Fernando Petersen, said on July 1, 2021.
The official explained that although there is already a large part of the population with at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, it is not the time to withdraw sanitary measures such as the use of face masks, handwashing with soap (or use of gel antibacterial) and keep your distance, as a new peak of the virus could be registered between July and August. That warning has become the reality of COVID-19 in Jalisco since the beginning of the month.
As long as 70% of the population is not vaccinated, added the secretary, all of Jalisco continues to be at risk of contracting COVID-19, including vaccinated people.
So far, he said, only approximately 15% of the Jalisco population has been reached with the complete vaccination scheme (with two doses, or one in the case of the CanSino laboratory), and between 20% and 25% with schemes “incomplete”, or with at least one dose applied.
Jalisco’s COVID-19 hotline experience high call volume
While in the month of May, an average of 57 people called the COVID-19 line of the Jalisco Health Secretariat per day to request guidance on the virus, in the last week the figure grew almost 10 times.
According to statistics from the Secretariat’s emerging and re-emerging diseases hotline, in the last week, the first of July, an average of 535 daily calls were reached, almost the same average registered in March 2020, the first month of the pandemic in Mexico. At that time, 534.9 calls were reported every 24 hours.
This week’s record was reached on Tuesday, when 981 calls were reported in a single day.
Although the increase was observed from last June, when 502.8 daily calls were registered, the figure had not been so high since January 2021, when 701.7 calls were reached every day.
For this reason, the Jalisco Health Secretariat reported that, given the growing demand for guidance on the disease, the possibility of expanding the number of operators trained to serve the 333 823-3220 line has been planned: there are currently 24 health professionals per shift in the day and twelve at night; however, this can gradually increase as the emergency requires it to reach a total of 50 operators, the agency said.
The current functions of this call center are orientation and channeling of suspected cases and the scheduling of tests for the detection of the new coronavirus; as well as help in the process of vaccination appointments against COVID-19 on the state platform, and advice related to dengue.
In Jalisco, about 3,000 diagnostic tests for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus are carried out per day among all the laboratories authorized by INDRE, public and private. On July 4, 4,182 tests were carried out, and in previous days (July 2 and 3) 3,700 tests were exceeded, the agency ended.
