With an occupation of intensive care beds (ICU) that during the last three days has exceeded 75%, the Governor (e) of Antioquia, Luis Fernando Suárez, declared this Thursday the red alert in Antioquia.
As he said yesterday to EL COLOMBIANO Leopoldo Giraldo, Manager for coronavirus care in the Department, after a meeting with the Ministry of Health and analyzing other systems, the decision was that this declaration would be made when the occupation was at 75% or more for three days in a row.
It may interest you: When will the red alert be declared in Antioquia?
So today, with the declaration, Suárez explained that they have been ready for more than four months, preparing for this moment. He indicated that all the work that the Government has done has been aimed at strengthening the institutional capacities of health service providers with the increase in beds and mentioned that today the goals set for the closing with a cut to July have been exceeded, but still Due to the increase in infections (especially in the metropolitan area), this decision must be made, which today puts the department “in another cycle of the pandemic.”
At the time that Antioquia has an occupational percentage of more than 85%, Suárez said, it will correspond to decree a quarantine of at least seven consecutive days. “These are complex and difficult measures that we know are affecting trade and the economy, but we are committed to defending life as a supreme value. Hence, we have to take these restrictive measures in the coming days. ” In principle, the decision would be aimed at the municipalities of Valle de Aburrá. Then it would be necessary to evaluate if the four municipalities of the banana axis of Urabá and those of Valle de San Nicolás (such as Rionegro) are included.
He referred to the Unified Command Post with the Ministry of Health, in which there was an analysis of the evolution of cases in Medellín and the Aburrá Valley, the subregion with the greatest increase in recent days. Yesterday a decree was issued declaring quarantine for these localities the next two weekends.
Read here: The 30 exceptions that will rule during the next two quarantines in Aburrá
What does the red alert imply?
Lina Bustamante, Sectional Secretary of Health, stated that this measure is consulted with the Ministry of Health. This Thursday was the 145th day of the first case in Antioquia and the 120th day of the first deceased. Antioquia adjusted, until yesterday, 28,845 cases, of which 77% are in the metropolitan area.
Of the 428 deaths in Antioquia, the case fatality is 1.4%. Today the ICU occupancy rate is 79.49%, with 558 people in these units.
This red alert, Bustamante said, implies that the Department maintains control of the covid and non-covid beds in the department. Some non-critical services such as oral health are restricted, ambulatory surgery and non-urgent procedures are suspended. This has two purposes: in many IPS these operating rooms are converted into services to be used as ICUs. Also, the red alert measure seeks to liberate the human resource in health.
Additionally, public and private IPS must activate their emergency plans and be clear about their plan for expanding human resources and services. We will activate the bioethics committee. We are working with the medical associations and the deans of the Faculties of Medicine of the universities of Antioquia ”.
At this stage, Bustamante pointed out, it is urgent that citizens reinforce protection measures at home (social distancing and the use of masks).
Jaime Enrique Gómez, director of the Dapard, recalled that this declaration is framed in the public calamity declared on March 13 of this year. Today there was an extraordinary meeting of the Departmental Council for Disaster Risk Management.
Bioethics committees are urgent
Yessica Giraldo Castrillón, an epidemiologist at Ces University, explains that this is the highest alert for the probability of a collapse of the hospital network. It involves more coordination work and definition of strict criteria on what admission to an intensive care unit means: “Here we must think that the situation can become critical. The most feared for health personnel is that there are not enough beds according to the needs of patients and that you have to choose and present these ethical dilemmas of who is provided the service. It is one of the most difficult things for you as a doctor because nobody wants to be in that situation. Then the ethics committees that should have been structuring and strengthening in the institutions to support these difficult situations have to be activated. ”
He concluded that it is important that there are trained personnel, mainly in bioethics, who support personnel who are on the hotline because it is an emotional overload.
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