The doctor who tested positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19) in Panama after visiting Puerto Rico could have infected a maximum of up to dozens of people on the island.
So he estimated former state epidemiologist Ángeles Rodríguez, who urged all those who had contact with him to follow the recommendation to stay isolated by monitoring his health for at least 14 days.
“Obviously, the person began to show symptoms here in Puerto Rico, therefore, when he was most infectious,” Rodríguez said.
“The possibility that he has infected people is very real and the number of people he has infected will depend on what the patient’s transmissibility has been. If it’s a ‘super spreader,’ it would be up to 40 people a day, “he added.
The concept of the “super spreader” refers to the ability of a person to contact a large number of people and alluded to the case that led to the outbreak in South Korea.
“But the regular reproductive rate is that one person infects three, and those three another three more … and so on …”, he added.
The government requested that all those who were in rows rows K, L, M, N and O of the VIP section of National Zalsa Day at the Hiram Bithorn stadium be kept isolated by monitoring their health.
Rodríguez, for his part, He considered that anyone who has attended the event monitor their health pending whether symptoms of fever, cough and respiratory distress, typical of the coronavirus, arise.
The same applied to those who were at the dance the night before at the Sheraton hotel in the Convention Center., where the Panamanian doctor was.
For her part, the current epidemiologist of the State, Carmen Deseda, said today in a press conference that the most exposed person in the hotel was the woman with whom she shared the night of the dance and not the others who were in the activity.
Both the woman and the man who rented the apartment in Isla Verde are under the supervision of the Health Department.
For the infectologist Lemuel Martínez, it is sufficient for the moment to identify the areas where the Panamanian was so that people who know they were in the area take the measures, because it was where the man was showing the symptoms the longest.
“When you pass a person by the side, that is not risk. The risk is closeness and prolonged exposure”Martínez explained.
He added that “that is why the public call is made for those people, the next two weeks, to stay at home to monitor symptoms of cough, fever and general malaise,” he said. “A good practice is to contact your primary doctor to identify yourself and establish communication contact.”
“It is not that these people go to the doctor or the emergency room. It is that they call now that they are well to start monitoring. If they develop any of those symptoms, then call and coordinate the care they need,” he said.
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