The Ministry of Public Health reported that between January 9 and 15, at least 42,000 new confirmed cases of coronavirus were recorded.
One new record regarding the weekly confirmed cases of COVID-19 was registered in Ecuador in epidemiological week number 2 of this year, which corresponds to infections between January 9 and 15, as reported yesterday by the Ministry of Public Health (MSP).
That State portfolio revealed yesterday that only in these last seven days were at least 42,000 new infections, which in average time would be equivalent to every 14 seconds a person contracted the SARS-CoV-2 causing the disease COVID-19.
That figure, although already high, is only approximate and could even increase in the coming days as there are still pending results of RT-PCR samples to be entered into the MSP’s Epidemiological Surveillance System (ViEpi).
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This record far exceeds the previous one in these 23 months of pandemic in Ecuador and that occurred in the epidemiological week 1 of the year 2021, which corresponded to between January 3 and 9, when they reported 15,717 infections, counted based on the date of symptoms (on average one would have occurred every 38 seconds).
Those 15,717 cases were distributed as follows:
By gender:
Male: 7,935 cases
Female: 7,782
By age ranges:
65 years and older: 1,782 (11.34%)
50 to 64 years: 3,065 (19.50%)
20 to 49 years old: 9,835 (62.57%)
15 to 19 years old: 567 (3.61%)
10 to 14 years: 287 (1.83%)
5 to 9 years: 118 (0.75%)
1 to 4 years: 47 (0.30%)
1 day to 11 months and 29 days: 16 (0.10%)
On that occasion, Quito that week alone registered 5,646 cases; Guayaquil, 1,717; and Cuenca, 600, among the three cities with the most infections.
Just as January was the peak month of the pandemic last year, in this 2022 that same month would be the one that registers a new record not only weekly, but monthly, reaching bordering or even possibly exceeding 100,000 infections in a period of 28 days or four epidemiological weeks, according to projections prepared by this medium.
The figure of more than 42,000 cases of the epidemiological week that has just ended, from January 9 to 15, was only approached or resembled similar amounts if we added periods of four epidemiological weeks (28 days), as they were between the 28 February and March 27, 2021, with at least 44,293 cases; from January 3 to 30, 2021, with just over 46,761; and from March 28 to April 24, 2021, with approximately 54,652 infections.
If we compare the last seven daily reports from the MSP (from the 10th to the 16th of this month), we observe that there would be 57,727 new cases (30,919 women and 26,808 men); however, only slightly more than 42,000 cases (about 52% are women and 48% are men) correspond to the week of January 9 to 15, 2022, since the rest are results of previous weeks that have gone entering ViEpi.
It should be noted that in these reports, the MSP clearly specifies that the accumulated accounting of confirmed and discarded cases is only based on RT-PCR tests (molecular biology), but the positive cases that have occurred have not been taken into account for this registry. result through antigen testing.
Increases positivity of RT-PCR tests
And it is no longer just the recent daily, weekly or monthly increase in confirmed cases nationwide that is of concern, but also the sustained increase in the percentage of positivity of the RT-PCR tests that are carried out in the country, in public and private health centers, a percentage that could even be much higher because not all the people possibly infected have been able to access the tests, either because of their cost or for some other reason.
This newspaper did positivity calculation of these tests (there are samples whose results continue to be entered) in the last 42 days or six epidemiological weeks; that is, between December 5 and January 15 last.
On December 5, of every 100 tests taken and processed, only 9 came out as confirmed cases, and the remaining 91 were discarded cases. The weekly average positivity (days 5 to 11 of that month) bordered the 13,87 %, having its peak on Monday 6, with 17.54% positivity.
One week later (days 12 to 18), the average positivity fell a few tenths of a point, without exceeding the 13,50 %, having its peak on Monday the 13th with 14.89%, and its lowest percentage on Saturday December 18th, with 12.14%.
The following week (days 19 to 25), of every 100 RT-PCR tests, on average 19 (19.27% ​​positivity) came out as confirmed cases and the remaining 81 were discarded. The peak was on Thursday the 23rd with 20.75% and the lowest day was Sunday the 19th, with 11.92%.
After Christmas week, the average percentage of test positivity began to double compared to the beginning of December (bordered the 28,00 % between December 26 and January 1), having the peak on Saturday 1 with a minimum of 30 confirmed cases of every 100 samples.
In the week between January 2 and 8 after that positivity exceeded 40.00% (I know tripled in relation to what was registered at the beginning of December 2021), with which at least 40 out of every 100 tests already came out in the weekly average as confirmed cases, the peak being on Thursday 6 with 50.76% positivity; that is, of every two samples processed, one turned out to be an infected person.
And in the recent week, from January 9 to 15, of every 100 tests, at least 54 came out as people with contagion (54.50% weekly average positivity), which represents that this positivity is quadrupled compared to a month ago, having the peak on Saturday the 15th with 61.52%, the highest daily percentage of positivity in 700 days of the pandemic.
Advance of COVID-19 by provinces
Below is a visualization of how COVID-19 has evolved in the last three months for each of the 24 provinces:
It can be seen in this graphic history that until before the MSP report of January 1, 2022, the growth of confirmed cases in all provinces was very similar to that of previous weeks and remained controlled. But already in this month the contagions begin to have an unusual increase, which is evidenced by the most intense shade of colors according to the reports from the beginning of the first and second fortnights of January. (I)
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
