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On March 3, the first case of coronavirus disease, Covid-19, was confirmed in Chile. It was a doctor from the Maule region who had traveled to the Southeast Asia. However, epidemiological studies by the Ministry of Health conclude that the virus entered our country much earlier, at least, during the month of February.
And it is that 16 people presented symptoms of the disease before the confirmation of the first case. This is stated in the reports after a change in the methodology, since from April 15 the cases are counted from the appearance of symptoms and no longer from the date of the result of the positive examination.
In the communes of Calama, Independencia, Santiago (2), Ñuñoa, Vitacura, La Reina, Pudahuel, Puente Alto, San Bernardo, Linares, Talcahuano, Concepción, Lautaro and Punta Arenas (2) are recorded 16 positive patients to the coronavirus that had arrived in the country and evidenced the symptoms in epidemiological week 9, that is, from February 23 to 29, according to the latest report by Minsal and the slogan La Tercera this Saturday.
This is established considering the date of onset of symptoms given by the patient and entered by the treating doctor on the Epivigila platform, which keeps the record. These are positive cases that attended a medical compound after March 3.
“They are people who had not given importance to their symptoms because they were mild, perhaps bronchitis. They were tested and they did have a coronavirus, ”says Minister Jaime Mañalich to the aforementioned newspaper.
Jeannette Dabanch, an infectologist from the University of Chile, affirms that “this has happened in all countries, and that is why we cannot identify ‘case zero’, the same as what happens in China and elsewhere. We cannot resolve the question of who was actually the first person. And for this reason, we did not identify the Talca doctor as a zero patient, because later it was discovered that the virus actually existed before, and must have arrived in the same way, for a trip abroad ”.
The specialist relates what happened with AH1N1 11 years ago. “The first positive PCR test for influenza AH1N1 was detected in Santiago, on some travelers who came from the Dominican Republic. And the next day another positive case appeared in a boy from a school in the eastern sector of the capital. There we concentrated in Santiago, looking for cases and contacts, to see if we could establish the appearance of the onset of symptoms. And when the start of the pandemic in Chile was already established, we realized that, in reality, the first case had passed us by and had happened in Puerto Montt, ”he recalls.
The first PCR test for Covid-19 was performed in Chile on January 30th. From that date, until March 3, the more than 10 tests carried out had given negative results, notes the Minister of Health.
UPDATE: This note was updated according to the last epidemiological report of Minsal corresponding to May 1, published this Saturday, in which the cases of patients with symptoms rose in epidemiological week 9 from 13 to 16.
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