More than 300 Covid patients await hospitalization in Rio de Janeiro | National newspaper

“There are many patients who come very seriously and what I have noticed is that there are very young patients,” said intensive care physician Carolina Lucas.

“They already arrive with respiratory failure, they need to be intubated immediately, placed on mechanical ventilation. And unfortunately with a very rapid evolution until death, “said doctor Rafael Mello Galliez.

Doctors Rafael and Carolina work on the front lines of the fight against Covid in different hospitals in Rio, but in recent weeks they have been daily witnesses of the same drama: the spread of the disease.

“In these last 24 hours, the beds were vacated and occupied immediately in less than six hours,” Rafael said.

“When a patient dies or is discharged from the ICU, these beds fill up in about two, three hours maximum,” Carolina said.

And the increase in the supply of elected officials is being insufficient to cover the number of critically ill patients arriving in the emergency room. The queue is growing. Last Tuesday (24), 146 patients were waiting for a bed in the city of Rio. This Tuesday (1), more than double, there are 315, 168 of them who need ICU.

In the city’s SUS network, 91% of Covid ICUs are occupied. In private hospitals it is also close to the limit.

Nelson was hospitalized with Covid symptoms in an isolated wing of a public hospital for five days. Just on Monday (30) he got a place in the ICU to be transferred. There was not time. The family says Nelson died in the ambulance.

“His case worsened on Saturday and then they intubated him. He was in trauma, in the trauma sector, he did not go to the CTI,” says Gabriele Freitas, Nelson’s niece.

A group of scientists from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, which is monitoring the evolution of the pandemic, says that the state may suffer a collapse in care for patients, especially the most serious ones. They ask local and federal authorities to work in a coordinated manner to take urgent action.

On the list are the immediate opening of beds in wards and ICUs, emergency hiring of health professionals, exhaustive tests of the population, immediate suspension of all kinds of face-to-face events, closure of beaches and evaluation to take distance measurements and even confinement, if the situation remains the same or worsens.

“What we are seeing in these months is that society as a whole has relaxed, both the population in its behavior, but mainly the government, which does not want to declare that there may be some measure restricting circulation,” says the researcher. by UFRJ Chrystina Barros.

“Today, the only thing we can ask for is the same thing that was said in April: try not to infect yourself. It is time that we limit circulation to the essentials ”, recommends Rafael.

“We are at a time when Covid does not choose who it is going to take seriously. Young and old die, and we can no longer predict who will be well and who will not, ”warned Carolina.

The Municipal Secretary of Health of Rio announced that he will meet on Wednesday (2) with the Scientific Committee to evaluate if it is the case to withdraw in the flexibility measures. He said that he maintains a field hospital in operation and does not have closed beds.

The state government announced the opening of another 150 ICU beds in the next 15 days.

As for the patient who died in the ambulance, the Andaraí Hospital said that it provided the necessary assistance and that he was transferred as soon as the vacancy arose.