In meetings, parties, shops and other spaces, more and more people are observed without masks, crowded together and who do not apply preventive measures.
Parties and gatherings where they don’t wear masks there is no distancing physical; vendors that without have tApabocas prepare, speak Y offer food or other products; buyers and families that are also in contact with those who neglect measures They are part of the scenes that are repeated frequently for weeks and that increase in this season of encounters for Christmas and the end of the year.
And to this is added the failure to wash hands with soap and water or disinfection of these with alcohol. That, like other health measures that many have stopped applying, expose them to more COVID-19 infections at a time when positive cases are rising in Ecuador, which already has its first confirmed patient with the omicron variant.
The vaccination with your dose of reinforcement; the correct use of the mask, that covers nose and mouth; physical distancing; not meet with people outside your close circle; opt for open and ventilated sites; isolate yourself as soon as you feel ill so as not to infect the rest and go for medical attention are part of the recommendations given by epidemiologists and doctors to avoid more cases of COVID-19, that this new variant is expanded rapidly and that the health system collapses.
With the omicron symptoms may occur after 48 or 72 hours of contagion, while with other variants appear up to 14 days later to infection. And the ability to infect or transmit the virus It can until quadruple with the omicronsay the doctors.
And a person with variant delta can infect six or eight people, with the omicron can go from 20 and go up to 30 due to the ease of transmission, through the respiratory tract, when speaking, singing, screaming, sneezing, coughing, among others, details the epidemiologist Jhony Real, who maintains that prevention and care or protection fall on the responsibility of each citizen.
Ministry of Health confirms presence of omicron variant in Ecuador
The omicron has 55 mutations. Of this, more than 32 stick to the spike or protein S, qwhich is the entrance to the human organism where the neutralizing antibodies do the combat, unlike the delta that has 7 mutations at that level of the spike or in the proteinexplains the Royal epidemiologist.
He says that in Ecuador the variant that dominates and circulates the most is the delta, which attacks the lungs directly Y produces more gravity in patients, while the current form of the omicron lodges in the bronchi, producing a mild to moderate disease at the moment, as you still have to wait about six or eight weeks to see if the latter can become seriously ill and lead to death, given that its appearance is almost recent (identified last month in South Africa, but has spread rapidly around the world) .
With a daily increase of 266 positive cases of COVID-19 in EcuadorAccording to official figures, and also of those hospitalized by this virus, doctors agree that the most affected are still unvaccinated and at-risk people such as older adults, overweight or obese citizens who are more likely to develop serious symptoms with the delta variant, immunosuppressed patients (their immune system does not adequately fight diseases and infections) or with pre-existing diseases.
Until the last updated report that the Ministry of Public Health has, with a cut-off to December 13, in Ecuador the COVID-19 has left 33,570 deaths, between confirmed by the virus and probable, since the beginning of the pandemic, February 29 from 2020 until December 13, 2021. As well as 534,176 infected positive with PCR test in these two years.
In Guayaquil there was a sustained increase in COVID-19 infections in week 49 of the epidemiological report, from December 6 to 12, which is run by the Technical Board of Health of the local Municipality, and which mostly ranged from mild to moderate. Thus, the rate of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Guayaquil was 3.4 per 10,000 inhabitants.
Vaccination alone does not cover 100% and has to be accompanied by other biosecurity measures such as a mask, hand washing and distancing. No to meetings with outsiders or who do not know their trajectory, their daily activity (if they are vaccinated or not, if they wear masks on their outings).
Jhony Real, epidemiologist
In Intensive Care Units (FIA) of the Guayaquil hospitals registered 43 patients in this epidemiological week, It indicated. And confirmed deaths from the virus dropped to an average of 0.8 deaths per day on the days of the report.
Alberto Campodónico, intensive care physician and internist at the Kennedy de la Alborada clinic, who has treated COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, highlights that by this time the degree of immunity that vaccines confer against the virus has begun to decrease, especially in older adults and risk groups who have already received their doses for six months.
Given this, he says, it is necessary to immunize faster, that more people get the booster dose (third dose), and that the unvaccinated groups be reached as soon as possible, since the latter are not protected against the development of a serious disease caused by the virus and are a source or route of contagion for the rest, even if the others are vaccinated.
Campodónico explains that those hospitalized for COVID-19 began to rise as of last October 15 after the holidays for October 9 and November. There an average of three to four patients were admitted daily, unlike the weeks before that, where one or two needed hospitalization. The latter already when the most critical months of the pandemic in the country had been overcome and after the mass vaccination process.
Between the more complicated patients you have cared for in recent weeks there was the case of a woman under the age of 50 whose pneumonia, caused by the virus, progressed in two days. She and her family were not vaccinated. In ICU (intensive or critical care) he has also had intubated patients in recent months, something that has not been seen frequently since the mass vaccination began to take effect.
Some vaccinated have also needed hospitalization who are over 40 and 60 years old and who have had a pre-existing disease or comorbidity, such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, kidney problems or who are immunosuppressed, he adds.
Capacity limitations, prohibition of dances, processions and burning of puppets in public areas, among restrictive measures for Christmas and New Year’s Eve
Children and adolescents are also another source or route of infection. And they are generally asymptomatic, that is, they do not have symptoms, says pediatrician Carlos Ulfe Machuca, president of the Voluntary Medical Commission.
And there is a group, those under 5 years of age, who still cannot be vaccinated against COVID-19. There are also those who can already be inoculated, but who have not yet done so because their relatives have decided to do so, due to their beliefs or ignorance about the benefits and risks of immunization, or those who have only received the first dose.
In meetings, parties, walks or in shops it is also appreciated kids what are you no masks, although they can use them, and who share games even with minors they don’t know and they do not wear masks either.
Ulfe calls on parents to care for and protect children. Remember that in the first days of vaccination for the population aged 5 to 11 years, it was the parents who did not want to respect the lines or physical distance and they clustered despite the fact that some did not have masks, regardless of the risk of exposure to contagion .
He recommends improving children’s diets to help boost their immune systems and that they can fight diseases, more in this time when seasonal viruses increase like those of the influenza or flu, in addition to the COVID-19.
For example, he says, parents can make creams or soups for children with chard, spinach and broccoli, accompanied with a piece of meat or fish. Avoid giving them only carbohydrates, such as “noodle soups”, sodas, sweets, among others. They have to consume proteins, fruits, highlights this pediatrician.
In the case of Lactating babies or children are vital breastfeeding up to 2 years and a good food and nutrition for the child and the mother, he adds. (I)
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