The coronavirus puts pressure on the health system of the 4 capitals with the highest number of deaths from Covid-19: São Paulo, Rio, Manaus and Fortaleza | Coronavirus

The advance of the coronavirus pandemic (Sars-CoV-2) in recent days has intensified pressure on the capital’s health system across the country. The situation worsened, especially in those with the highest number of deaths from Covid-19 disease (see exclusive map of all the cities that registered deaths):

• São Paulo (more than 600 confirmed deaths): this Friday (17), at least five hospitals were operating at full capacity in the ICU, one of them is Emílio Ribas, reference in the treatment of infectious diseases;
• Rio (more than 220 deaths): Rio’s four main emergencies no longer have places available in the ICU;
• Manaus (more than 120 deaths): Due to the lack of space to store the bodies of patients who died in a city hospital, a refrigerator container was installed to store corpses;
• Strength (more than 110 deaths): between Monday (13) and Tuesday (14), in the 24-hour period, the number of hospitalizations for Covid-19 in the ICU increased from 38 to 73; Hospitalizations were also doubled with the use of mechanical ventilation.

Furthermore, in view of the rapid growth in cases in Maranhão, the São Luís public network occupies 90% of the exclusive clinical beds for Covid-19.

The most recent evaluation of coronavirus cases in Brazil published by the Ministry of Health showed the following data:

• 2,141 deaths – there were 1,924 on the farm (11.2% increase)
• 33,682 cases – on Thursday there were 30,425 (increase of 10.7%)
• in seven days, They were recorded 1,024 additional deaths (90.4% increase)

See how the situation is in the most affected capitals:

This Friday, São Paulo had five hospitals operating at full capacity in the ICUs. One of these units is Emílio Ribas, a reference in the treatment of infectious diseases.

The hospital has 100% of the beds occupied and, even so, it receives more than 100 requests for hospitalizations per day. Emílio Ribas’ beds are occupied by patients between 22 and 78 years old, most of them over 65 years old.

Emílio Ribas ICU is managed by intensive care doctor Jacques Sztajnbok, who has been in the hospital for almost three decades. He has faced other epidemics, such as measles, yellow fever, and H1N1, but says the coronavirus crisis is different.

According to Sztajnbok, with crowded ICUs, vacancies arise only when someone is discharged or dies. He says he is concerned about the fate of patients rejected by the hospital: “Of course [a situação desses pacientes] it’s up to us, because there is that concern for the fate of the patient that we said no “

In the eastern area of ​​São Paulo, four municipal hospitals do not have vacancies in the ICU for serious cases: Tide Setúbal, Cidade Tiradentes, Ermelino Matarazzo and Doutor Inácio Proença de Gouveia.

At the Hospital das Clínicas, which is linked to the Faculty of Medicine of the University of São Paulo, More than 80% of vacancies in the ICU they are already busy too.

The state government says it has a system to make better use of the vacancies and that patients in the capital can be transferred inland. The Department of Health is also studying how to use the private spaces of the hospital to serve SUS patients.

Major emergencies in Rio do not have openings. Hospitals Albert Schweitzer, Salgado Filho, Souza Aguiar and Miguel Couto they are with 117 beds occupied in the ICU.

At the hospital Ronaldo Gazolla, a reference in the fight against Covid-19, of the 55 available beds, only two are free, but can only be occupied by those who are already in the unit.

On Thursday (16), the occupation of the hospital had already exceeded 90%. The city promised to open ten more beds in the ICU this Friday.

In the Carlos Chagas and Getúlio Vargas hospitals of the state network, the situation is even worse. All beds are occupied.

The image is repeated in Brain institute and in Anchieta Hospital, in the northern part of the city: there are 81 busier places.

At the hospital Pedro Ernesto Universitysingle four of the 19 beds are available. As in the Ronaldo Gazolla hospital, they can only be occupied by those who are already in the unit.

After a video on Thursday showed the bodies of the dead with the alleged Covid-19 stretched out on stretchers alongside living patients and hospitalized at the João Lúcio Hospital and Emergency Room, in Manaus, a container was installed on Friday morning refrigerated on site. fair (17).

The objective is to provide support to the corpse storage structure in the health unit, which suffers from a lack of space. The Amazon government says the camera will pack bodies of the dead for Covid-19.

Around 10:30 a.m. This Friday, the Ministry of Communication (Secom-AM) reported that all the bodies had already been removed from the hospital. Eight of them were placed inside the cold room..

João Lúcio was not the first hospital to receive the installation of a cold room. Delphina Aziz Hospital, a reference center for the treatment of coronavirus in Manaus, installed a camera in the parking lot earlier this month. At that time, Amazonas still had 12 confirmed deaths.

Between Monday and Tuesday of this week, the number of ICU admissions increased from 38 to 73 due to Covid-19 in Fortaleza. This represented a 92.1% increase in total hospitalizations, according to information from the State Health Secretariat (Sesa).

The number of hospitalizations using mechanical ventilation also increased from 31 to 61, a respiratory aid measure applied in more severe cases. The growth was 96.8%.

The number of admissions for suspected Covid-19 cases in Fortaleza also increased. In ICUs, they went from 36 to 56, an increase of 55.6%. Relative to mechanically ventilated patients, they increased from 29 to 46, an increase of 58.6%.

In addition, Ceará reached this Thursday 100% of the capacity of the exclusive ICUs to treat Covid-19 on the public network.

Sesa’s Executive Secretary for Surveillance and Regulation, Magda Almeida, said the state has patients waiting in line for a place.

The states with the most confirmed deaths are:

• Sao Paulo (928)
• Rio de Janeiro (341)
• Pernambuco (186)
• Ceará (149)
• Amazon (145)