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Antioquia has had two consecutive days in which 79 percent of its beds in Intensive Care Units have been occupied, which leaves the department shortly after decreeing the red alert.
After the report of the Sectional Health Secretariat on Sunday, the occupation of the beds reached 724 occupied ICU beds of the 923 that were destined for covid-19. This means an occupation of 79.52 percent, which means that four more beds would be missing before it reaches 80 percent.
This alert is decreed only if the occupancy exceeds 80 percent for three consecutive days, but in times of total reopening, this moment would not be far off.
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Leopoldo Giraldo, manager for coronavirus care in Antioquia, explained to EL TIEMPO that although the occupancy of ICU beds is about to reach that percentage of the declaration, it is essential to take into account that hospital centers are making use of beds exclusively intended for the care of this virus to care for other patients.
So the calculation would be different, Because of the 734 beds occupied, 330 are with patients suffering from this virus, 138 with suspected of having it and 266 with other diseases even if the beds are included.
“Secondary this to what? For the purposes of reopening, that today we are operating cancer patients that we did not operate before, patients who were accumulated from cardiovascular, neurological or orthopedic surgeries, who need an intensive care bed for the recovery process and today they are undergoing surgery ” , deepened the manager for the covid.
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In addition to this, the department has a total of 1,163 ICU beds in general, that is, there are 240 more spaces that must be used to treat other types of conditions. Words more, words less, means that today, October 12, there are 506 non-covid patients occupying the total ICU of the department.
Information from the Regulatory Center for Urgencies and Emergencies (CRUE).
Antioquia Health Section
If we refer to this figure, currently the general occupancy is 83.75 percent, which would mark a red alert, but does not apply in this case because said declaration is made when the covid ICUs reach that threshold.
Giraldo stressed that, in any case, the department has fulfilled its expansion plan of the ICU beds for covid-19, which in its phase four contemplated reaching 909 and reached 923.
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According to the graphs that can be consulted on the Antioquia Government website, an important moment as a precedent to the department’s covid situation was on August 30, when the number of infected patients dropped in the middle of the declaration of a red alert by the ICU. in these beds and the presence of those recovering from other illnesses increased. This also has its explanation.
“We came on red alert, we went down to orange alert and surgeries and things had been suspended. This suspension was removed again so that hospitals could generate these proceduresSo what has happened is that the ICU has been occupying more beds for non-covid patients, ”Giraldo explained to EL TIEMPO.
What if the red alert is declared?
In accordance with Decree 1974 of 2020 of the Government of Antioquia, by means of which the department lowered from red to orange alert in ICU beds, the declaration must be made after 80 percent due to the increased capacity installed in the network of public and private health in the department, which is controlled through the Regulatory Center of Urgencies and Emergencies (CRUE).
At the time, this fact meant the opening of other health services that had been restricted, which means that in this scenario they could be closed again.
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“We may have to decree the red alert and secondary to that we will have to make decisions at some point that allow us to vacate these beds that are with a non-covid patient, but say today that the 189 beds that we have available cannot be used for other procedures,” It would be punishing some patients that we can treat with those beds, ”Giraldo said.
According to the review made by CRUE, these beds are also occupied with patients who suffered traffic accidents.
This allows you not to have to close the city
Given this, Giraldo clarified that closing the possibility to care for other diseases will be done if mortality from this virus in the department shoots up, but ideally, we will seek to continue controlling the number of infections with self-care of citizens and compliance with biosafety protocols in companies.
As for whether this would imply some restrictions on the mobility of people, such as the Peak and ID, the quarantine model for days and others, which is one of the most frequently asked questions by citizens; Giraldo recalled that this was left to the power of each local president, in which case he must request it from the National Government.
In the case of Medellín, Mayor Daniel Quintero told this media in recent statements that the city was far from entering quarantine again.
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“We have a curve that presented a decline, but then stabilized. For the next few days, we expect a kind of sine wave effect, but within the framework that we have built of 1,000 intensive care beds. This makes it possible not to have to close the city, ”said the president.
However, according to the CRUE, there are 602 ICU beds in Medellín and 84.55 percent of them are already occupied.
According to Giraldo, the beds that the CRUE registers are those that are registered through the Special Registry of Service Providers (REPS), a regulatory registry, that is, those that are not counted there; they do not meet the conditions of being an intensive care bed.
It is worth mentioning that until this Sunday, Antioquia registered 131,719 confirmed cases of covid, of which 1,939 were new cases. Active cases would be 5,050, 2,666 deceased and 123,752 recovered.
MELISSA ÁLVAREZ CORREA
EL TIEMPO correspondent
Medellin
