The areas for new graves were defined by the BH City Council, where the number of deaths increased to 25 (photo: Gladyston Rodrigues / EM / D.A Press)
The COVID-19 deaths in Minas Gerais they went from 97 to 106 in the last 24 hours, constituting a sad milestone in the hundreds in the state. According to Secretary of State for Health (SES), there was an increase of nine death victims in the state in relation to the bulletin on Wednesday. There are now 2,770 confirmed cases of respiratory disease. The number of records suspected of having the virus infection as a cause remains high, at 94,124.
Two deaths were recorded in Belo Horizonte, increasing from 23 to 25. Health authorities also recorded three deaths in Juiz de Fora, which now has nine deaths, instead of the previous six. Deaths have also been confirmed in Uberlndia, Toledo, Bueno Brando and Extrema. Of the 2,770 confirmed cases of the disease in the state, 890 are registered in the capital, 235 in Juiz de Fora and 190 in Uberlndia.
With the advance of COVID-19, 204 municipalities miners had confirmation of the disease and 50 of them reported deaths. The disease spreads in the interior of Minas, with the first cases registered in the municipalities of Alpinpolis, Alto Rio Doce, Bela Vista de Minas, Caranda, Couto de Magalhes de Minas, Eli Mendes, Ilicnea, Ita de Minas, Sea of Spain , So Francisco do Glria, So Joo do Paraso and Tabuleiro.
The number of women contaminated (1,346) is still higher than that of men (1,318). The highest contagion rate, 78%, is in the age group of 20 to 59 years. The number of older people affected by the disease is 474. In the age group over 60 years, the majority of deaths are concentrated, 80% of the total. 85 elderly people died in the state due to the disease, 18 people between 40 and 59 years old and three from 20 to 39 years old.
The number of people who died of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Minas Gerais since the start of the pandemic has increased by 357%, compared to the same period last year. The data can be seen on the Civil Registry Transparency Portal, a platform presented yesterday by the Association of Registrars of Natural Persons of Brazil (Arpen-Brazil).
Considering the confirmation of the first case of COVID-19 by the Ministry of Health, from February 26 to April 27, the mining rooms recorded 119 deaths from SARS, compared to 26 in the same period last year. The data for the last 10 days was not taken into account because, according to Arpen, the information is based on medical documents sent to regional rooms to collect bites, and this procedure can take five to 10 days to enter the national system. The transparency portal also indicates a possible underreporting in the registry of deaths from the new coronavirus. In Minas Gerais, until yesterday, the rooms have already recorded 202 deaths from the disease.
Arpen-Brasil points out that the numbers may be higher, since the deadline to register deaths is up to 24 hours, but with a tolerance of 15 days in some exceptional cases, such as when death occurs in an isolated place and far from registration rooms. on board ships or on military missions. Notaries must submit national central registers within eight days.
Reduced quarantine Social isolation fell in Minas. However, it is not possible to follow the numbers, which are not published by the state government. Last Sunday, hundreds of people went on hiking trails in Belo Horizonte and many of them did not wear mask protection.
The percentage of social isolation reported by other states, such as So Paulo, is one of the parameters to determine if it is necessary to adopt stricter measures to face COVID-19. On Wednesday, the Secretary of State for Health, Carlos Eduardo Amaral, reported that 3 million miners are being monitored by an application.
However, he did not detail what percentage has been following the stay-at-home guide. According to the secretary, there was a reduction in social isolation, but without revealing the numbers it is not possible to know in what proportion.
The State of Minas sent the question about this percentage to be answered at the press conference given yesterday by Carlos Eduardo Amaral, online, on social networks. Removed from the list by the team that receives the demands of the journalists, the question was not presented to the secretary.
Carlos Eduardo has been saying that a sudden change in social isolation can lead the state to “lose” everything it has done so far.
In addition to BH, Nova Lima was one of the cities in
that the use of masks has become mandatory (photo: Leandro Couri / EM / D.A Press)
60 days with no recommended tests
Gabriel Ronan and Joo Vtor Marques
During the two months of confirmation of the first case of COVID-19 in Minas Gerais, completed today, there have been many changes in the fight against respiratory disease in the state and in Brazil. The masks, which were not mandatory at the beginning of the crisis, became the main garment. While the numbers soar in neighboring states, with So Paulo and Rio de Janeiro on the brink of collapse of health systems, Minas continues to postpone the peak of the disease, now scheduled for June 6.
At the same time that the impacts on public policies must be highlighted, the high number of suspected cases – 94,124 in all mining cities and more than 30,000 in Belo Horizonte – reveals the difficulties in evaluating people. “The most effective way to save lives is to break the chain of transmission. We will not be able to stop the pandemic if we do not know who is infected. We have a simple message: test, test, test. All suspected cases, “said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), in March, even at the start of the pandemic.
However, the protocol is different in Brazil. The country only evaluates patients facing certain clinical conditions, such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), symptomatic health professionals, and sentinel unit samples for influenza and SARS. The same is true for suspicious deaths from COVID-19 and with representative samples (minimum 10%) in influenza outbreaks in closed settings, such as nursing homes, prisons, and hospitals.
According to the bulletin of the Secretary of State for Health (SES), published yesterday, the state diagnosed only 10.7% of suspected cases. In Belo Horizonte, the percentage of people analyzed is even lower: 7.6%, since 32,800 of the more than 35,000 patients still do not know whether they contract the virus or not. According to data accumulated until Monday and published in an analysis carried out by the Coronavirus-MG project, Minas Gerais has the worst evidence rates in the country, both in terms of population size and the number of suspected cases.
“The more people tested, the better our approach to dealing with the epidemic. For example, if I examine multiple people with a quick diagnosis, I can trace their contacts, go after those contacts, propose quarantine for family contacts and contacts in the workplace, and therefore reduce the curve of the epidemic, “he says. the infectologist Una Tupinambs, member of the Committee for the confrontation of epidemics COVID-19 in the capital of Minas Gerais.
“Without a test, there is no way to measure. In order for us to make mathematical models, inferences regarding the number of tests that have been performed, which are estimates. But the estimates may be inaccurate, so it is not the best way. The best way would be to do more intensive testing, especially in larger cities. Very small cities have a low population density ”, explains Antnio Toledo Junior, vice president of the Sociedade Mineira de Infectologia.
According to SES, the network of state partner health laboratories has the capacity to perform up to 2,000 examinations per day. The folder confirms that “it is possible that tests will not be carried out in” cases of patients with mild symptoms and without indicators that place them in risk groups. “According to the government, the Ezequiel Dias Foundation (Funed) began receiving samples to identify the new coronavirus on March 12 and since then, obtained results from 12,845 of the 14,561 samples collected until May 4. All were processed by the RT-PCR test, considered safer.
Regarding rapid tests, SES reports that it received approximately 50 thousand units from the Ministry of Health. These tests are not a substitute for RT-PCR. While the most agile objective is to know if the person has had or is in contact with the disease, the longest test examines the presence of the virus in the mucosa and nasal secretions.
Capacity The expansion of tests in Minas Gerais implies the opening of the Molecular Biology Laboratory in the Carlos Prates neighborhood, in the northwest region of Belo Horizonte. The unit is in the final stages of completion and will have the capacity to perform 4,000 tests per month. As for the rapid tests, the city council of the capital reports that it must receive, in the next stages of confrontation with the virus, 75 thousand units from the Ministry of Health.
Since the first case was registered, on March 8, Minas Gerais bought personal protective equipment, expanded the number of ICU nursing beds and hired health professionals to combat the new coronavirus pandemic. The measures for social isolation and the closure of commerce, adopted by BH on March 18 and corroborated by the state on March 20, were also part of the planning.
Difficulty with system pressure.
The current percentages of bed occupancy and respirator use in Minas Gerais and specifically in BH are considered positive. But, in addition to the internal demand of each city, another concern arises for the public administration: the migration of patients from municipalities or even from neighboring states whose health systems are in worse condition.
“As Minas Gerais is linked to Rio and Paulo, we have seen peculiar situations. In Juiz de Fora, which is very close to Rio de Janeiro, there is an increase in the search for spontaneous demand from people in Rio for medical assistance in Minas Gerais. As the person knows that the units in Rio are full and that they would have to be migrating between the health units there, the faster they get into a car and go to Juiz de Fora to be treated, “exemplified the vice president of Sociedade Mineira Diseases Infectious, Antnio Toledo Junior Points out that a similar phenomenon can also occur in Grande BH in relation to other regions of the state where there is not so much structure.
From the point of view of the body of health professionals, since the beginning of the pandemic, Minas has opened 15 notices to fill 300 vacancies at the Eduardo de Menezes and Alberto Cavalcanti hospitals, in BH; Joo Penido, in Juiz de Fora; and Antnio Dias, in Patos de Minas. In BH, also taking into account what the city did, 1,270 new professionals were admitted, including technicians, doctors and nurses.
Officially, the state government guarantees that personal protection equipment for servers is not lacking, despite protests in April in the category that demanded better working conditions. The investment of R $ 40 million to buy almost 1 million N95 and disposable masks. (GR and JVM)
