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The Ministry of Health confirmed a total of 1,689 cases of coronavirus on Friday, strongly focused on the extreme south of the country. According to the report, 42% of new infections are distributed in only three regions: Biobío (302), La Araucanía (164) and Los Lagos (243).
Total, in this territorial block 709 cases of Covid-19 were reported, those who, added to those infected in the last two weeks, they raised to 4,605 active patients, or that they can transmit the disease. That is to say, These three regions group 34% of the 13,564 people with contagious coronavirus and that they must remain in strict quarantine to avoid spreading the disease.
The situation of the area, which adds 24 communes in quarantine, keeps the authorities on alert. “The pandemic has had a different behavior in the different regions. We had major foci in the north and now we are seeing increases in the south, ”says the Undersecretary of Public Health, Paula Daza.
In the Bio bio region, where seven communes are in quarantine, the seremi of Health, Héctor Muñoz, said “We are concerned about what is happening in the province of Biobío, where we have 113 active cases, when we always had 30 or 40, and that increases the figure significantly ”.
Muñoz added that in the province of Biobío family outbreaks are on the rise and that is why we made the decision to move four communes to phase 2 (transition) “.
In The lakes, while, As of Saturday, the communes of Chonchi and Purranque will begin the total quarantine, thus adding to Puerto Montt, Frutillar, Fresia, Los Muermos, Osorno, Río Negro and San Juan de la Costa, they are already confined.
“Here there is community circulation of the virus, and as there is a higher community viral load, there is a probability that new cases will appear”, held the epedmiologist José Antonio Vergara.
In case of La Araucanía, where infections grew almost 50% in a week, is closely watched by the Ministry of Health.
“There we are seeing a greater increase in cases, significant, and it is the area that we are looking at with the greatest concern,” said Daza., who explained that the increase in cases, in addition to the regional capital, Temuco, is occurring in rural areas, “Where it is sometimes more complex for people to move to health residences, due to the difficulty of leaving their work or caring for livestock, for example”
There, As of Saturday, the communes of Galvarino and Renaico will join the total confinement that already comply Villarrica, Teodoro Schmidt, Saavedra, Carahue, Ercilla and Loncoche.
“The Araucanía Region has special characteristics: it is the region with the highest multidimensional and income poverty, which leads to the risk factors being amplified. Mobility has not been reduced as in the first quarantine and that has implied the decline of some communes “, says the Academic of Public Health of the Usach, Claudio Castillo, who adds that, in this panorama “A greater effort is required in the Testing, Traceability and Isolation strategy to contain the spread of the virus.”
Teresa Balboa, specialist in preventive medicine and public health at the Universidad de la Frontera, stressed that social determinants are associated with a worse evolution of the clinical picture of patients, which could cause more severe local cases. “Our region is one of the most vulnerable in this regard, because health indicators are accompanied by multidimensional poverty, which are unfavorable. We are one of the regions with the highest rate of obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus and we have one of the oldest populations, ”says Balboa.
For Álvaro Cerda, technical director of the Laboratory of Bioanalysis and Molecular Diagnosis of the Universidad de la Frontera in Temuco, “the second wave has already arrived. Temuco has already been experiencing a sustained increase in the number of infections for several weeks and we only have to wait for the health measures and the call made by the authority to increase care to take effect ”.
The local health minister, Gloria Rodríguez, emphasized that permits to leave must be requested only for specific procedures.
“We have seen that many people believe that weekends are for distraction, going out with the children, but a weekend with quarantine is with restrictions. The permits are not for going out for a walk. We will have to continue respecting quarantines, because if not, it will be impossible to contain the pandemic “.
