Hospital network of the Valley goes from orange alert to yellow

The Government of Valle del Cauca went to a yellow alert in the department’s hospital network due to the behavior of recent weeks in the occupation of intensive care units for the health emergency due to covid-19.

This means that a part of the stretchers in Intensive Care units in the region designated to treat severe cases of covid-19, may be used for patients with different pathologies.

Through Resolution 1.220.68-1668 of September 22, 2020, the Valle del Cauca Health Secretariat established that, after an evaluation of the behavior of the cases for a month, it went from being on orange alert to yellow .

According to the document, there was a gradual decrease in this indicator, after crossing a plateau between the months of July and August.

You can read: Daily cases of covid-19 in Cali are increasing again: Ministry of Health

Maria Cristina Lesmes, head of that agency, indicated that currently the department has an occupation close to 50%.

“According to the projections of the expected behavior consistent with the opening of the economic sectors since last September 1, with a possible reappearance. There was a waiting period to evaluate said behavior and decide with greater caution when to descale the alert”, indicates resolution.

Thus, the head of that office confirmed that “we return to the yellow alert in the network of health providers, as of today.”

In addition, he pointed out that the “permanent monitoring” of the ICU occupation in the Valley will continue, especially due to the increase in positive cases of the new coronavirus in Cali.

From this moment, according to the official, they will begin the selective closure of special beds for covid-19 and it will be gradually, that a capacity will be left in case it is needed.

This decision was made given that “the costs to keep open the current number of beds is very high,” said the secretary.

Some of the provisions established by the Resolution are:

– Have 40% of ICU beds available for the care of suspected or confirmed cases of covid-19.

– In the provision of health services, biosafety protocols must be followed for patients both in the hospital and outpatient settings.

– Prioritize the initial home care of patients infected by Covid-19, this with the purpose of not congesting health services in emergencies and reducing the risk of contagion.

Valle del Cauca has 58,048 positive cases of covid-19, of which 2,435 are in the ICU.

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It is worth mentioning that this Tuesday, from the Municipal Health Secretariat they called on the public not to neglect self-care measures during selective isolation because the identified covid-19 cases are increasing again.

Miyerlandi Torres, in charge of the agency, explained that the Rt indicator, as they called the effective number of reproduction of the virus, went from 0.86 to 0.94 in the last days, this implies that the average number of cases increased from 300 to 500.

“Once the cases increase, hospitalizations and the occupancy of ICU beds also begin to increase, today (Tuesday) we have 41% of the exclusive stretchers for covid-19 occupied, this figure keeps us calm, however the increase in cases it also implies a referral to ICU beds, “he added.