Attendances to suspected cases of covid-19 have increased in eight out of ten private hospitals in São Paulo in recent days, but most patients did not need to be hospitalized. This is what points to a survey to be released this Wednesday, 23, by the Union of Hospitals, Clinics and Laboratories of the State of São Paulo (SindHosp).
Specialists in the medical field say that, so far, the advancement of cases has been marked by mild conditions, but they reinforce the importance of completing the vaccination schedule and adopting measures such as wearing a mask in closed and crowded places. The country has been experiencing a new wave of covid, driven by Ômicron subvariants.
In all, 90 private hospitals across the state were consulted by SindHosp between the 11th and 21st of this month. Of these, 77% are located in the countryside and 23% in the capital. According to the survey, 84% of hospitals reported an increase in visits to people with suspected covid over the last few days.
Among these hospitals, the majority (39%) reported a discharge of 21% to 30% in care for patients with this profile. In 31%, this growth was between 11% and 20%. Another 21% of these institutions recorded growth of up to 20%, while in 9% the variation was greater than 31%.
Even with the increase in attendances, most hospitals (73%) report that the increase in hospitalized patients was less than 5% in both ICU beds and clinical beds. In 18%, this increase was between 6% and 10%. In only 9% of them did growth exceed 11%.
care
President of SindHosp, physician Francisco Balestrin says that the greatest circulation of the coronavirus actually occurs at this time, which demands attention for health care. “However, the volume of hospitalizations is still low”, he ponders.
“We assessed that the cases evolve without severity, not requiring hospitalization”, highlights Balestrin. “But we ratify the need for the population to wear a mask in places with agglomerations and maintain the health safety protocol, with hand washing, and comply with the vaccination schedule.”
Infectologist at Hospital Sírio-Libanês, Mirian Dal Ben points out that, especially in the last two weeks, the institution has observed a “significant increase in the number of cases”. “The expectation is that we reach the peak (of cases) in the first week of December”, she points out. According to her, the number of hospitalizations has not risen in the same proportion, but it still requires a reorganization.
“Hospitals are having to reorganize themselves to be able to meet this demand of patients who need to be hospitalized”, she says. There are currently 50 hospitalized patients diagnosed with covid in Sírio-Libanês, 32% of whom are in intensive care beds. It increased five times compared to the first week of November. “Many patients are being hospitalized without the booster dose, especially the elderly”, points out the doctor, who reinforces the need for the population to take additional doses.
She also warns that other groups are being affected. “Another population that has sought the emergency room a lot and is also hospitalized are children, especially those who have not yet been vaccinated”, she adds. Immunization of the target audience from 6 months to 2 years old started just last week in the country.
“It looks like a less serious scenario than we had already seen with Ômicron (in January), but whether it will be even milder than the last waves, we still don’t know”, points out Daniela Bergamasco, an infectologist at HCor, who recalls that, in other waves, the increase in cases came before the increase in hospitalizations.
For her, the reasons that help explain the more serious hospitalizations are not rising so much could range from the effects of greater vaccination coverage to other factors, such as still unknown characteristics of the new subvariants.
The information is from the newspaper The State of S. Paulo.
#Covid #grows #private #hospitals #cases