The Minister of Health, Francisco Alabí, reported that Hospital El Salvador still has 300 beds available. Currently, new cases are on the rise in the country, health detailed.
An estimated 600 beds of the 979 Hospital El Salvador has already been occupied, said Health Minister Francisco Alabí, who also added that new cases, calls and help to hospitals due to COVID-19 have increased.
“There has been an increase in the number of cases and on the ninth (January) we have more than 330 cases, hospitalization in hospital areas has been observed. There is support and the advantage that the entire strategy is consolidated in one of the hospitals. At the moment we have availability, even in the hospital of El Salvador we are still floating with an availability of more than 300 beds, of which it is a very important given. But weeks ago that data changed, there are a greater number of Salvadorans in the hospital of El Salvador, ”Francisco Alabí said in a morning television interview.
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The hospital for patients with COVID-19 located in the former facilities of the International Center for Fairs and Conventions (Cifco) has an estimated 979 beds, of which 105 are ICU beds and 143 are intermediate care beds, which could become ICU beds. According to an article published in The Lancet Global Health in December 2020, there are more than 731 hospital beds in the care of stable COVID-19 patients.
New cases, phone calls, and hospital visits for COVID-19 have increased. Photo EDH
Francisco Alabí said the increase in the number of cases is due to crowds and family gatherings as a result of the end-of-year celebrations.
“ Now if we observe assistance in hospital areas, an increase in the number of calls to call centers, and a series of indicators that point us to this situation, because it can actually somehow lead to more hospital admissions, that number of patients with complications, and of course the number of patients who could be fatal as a result of COVID-19, ”said Alabí.
The official stressed that the only way to prevent the disease is by taking basic measures and complying with biosecurity protocols, “It is the only way we can limit person-to-person transmission is to prevent a Salvadoran (with COVID-19). of being put in contact with a Salvadoran who has not suffered from the disease and who may be susceptible and if there is some evidence that there are cases of reinfection, ”said Alabí.
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In this regard, the Health Minister said there are no documented cases of COVID-19 re-infection in the country, “but there are certain parameters at the national level that have been attempted to recover to claim or clinically classify as a reinfection.
Internationally, there is a way to frame and frame the diagnoses of the re-infection criteria, because there is still a lot to investigate for this specific part, namely a period of 40 days in which the test can be positive or negative. And that means that a Salvadoran could have had the disease, in the end the test was negative, but in a 90 day period he was able to present the positive test and it could be due to the first infection, ”he explained.
Alabí explained that in contrast to the critical months of the first COVID-19 outbreak, which were in July and August 1, when the number of cases exceeded 449, there is now the support of Hospital El Salvador, whereas during the previous months (July and August) the entire health system of the 31 hospitals cooperated with all hospital areas in the care of Covid-19. “Now El Salvador can still be in one place, the hospital in El Salvador,” he stressed.
With the increase in the number of cases reported with Covid-19, with an estimated 330 new cases per day and 9 deaths from COVID-19 per day and more than 48,905 accumulated positive cases for the virus. The health minister emphasizes that 80% of the cases confirmed by the virus are asymptomatic “and that 20% require intervention, of these 15% receive treatment for moderate or severe symptoms and 5% go to an intensive care unit. where it requires mechanical ventilation ”, details Alabí.
The official adds that the number of cases reported, although asymptomatic, gives them a parameter to know the population that is still susceptible to the virus, which is an estimated 6.5 million Salvadorans, Alabí explained.