He Minister of Health, Enrique Paris, He reiterated that the drop in confirmed cases of coronavirus is only “slight” and does not allow to be “triumphalist”, since there are regions where a worrying increase is seen.
In a interview with the Latest News, the Secretary of State also pointed out that knowing when the peak of infections will be reached “It’s the million dollar question.”
“We have had a reduction in confirmed cases in the last seven days of 18%, that is a slight drop”, Paris commented.
“It is very slight,” he added. I don’t want to be a triumphalist. The variation in confirmed coronavirus cases is accompanied by another very important factor, which is the decrease in the positivity of the PCR tests ”.
Regarding the PCR tests, the minister commented that “we obtained something that did not pass long ago, that the positivity of the PCR tests dropped to 25% and before that more than 30% were coming out, with some regions where there were up to 60% positive. That’s good if we add it to the confirmed decline. Our goal is to lower the positivity of the exams to 10% ”.
However, he believes those achievements are not signs that the curve is starting to go down. “Not in any way. There are regions that generate a lot of concern. We still see increases in cases in Los Lagos, after a construction company mobilized workers to Ancud. We also see an increase in the Biobío, O’Higgins and Atnofagasta regions, where we had a 116% increase, triggered by the exchange of mining workers in Calama ”.
Regarding when the peak will be, it was blunt: “I don’t know, I can’t know it and nobody can know it. Dr. Pablo Vidal, who is a member of the pandemic advisory council of the Ministry of Health, said “that is the million dollar question.”
“We will only know that,” he continued, “when we can see the curve in retrospect. Everyone has been wrong when you predict that we will reach the peak. This is a new virus, we don’t know it. We have years of experience studying syncytial virus, cirus deinfluenza, or parainfluenza. There are curves of those with which they can make forecasts, but this is not the case in the case of the coronavirus. ”
Paris stressed how complex it is to make forecasts in this pandemic: “We are seeing what is happening in Germany, which quarantined an entire region of more than 360 thousand inhabitants because the virus returns. In Korea the same and now also in Uruguay, who were proud to have the lowest rate of infections in Latin America. ”
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