Galapagos, El Oro, Pichincha, Bolívar and Cañar maintain the highest rates in relation to their population.
Melanie Duarte, 23, contracted COVID-19 the first week of January. She lives in Guayaquil and, although she does not know exactly how or when, she suspects that she contracted the virus on the Metrovía, while going to work. He isolated himself as soon as he registered the symptoms. Almost a week later, her sister Vanessa, 39, tested positive and, likewise, does not know where she got it.
These cases are just a sample of what everyday that the increase in infections has becomeespecially in the last two weeks.
According to a analysis of official statistics from the Ministry of Health (MSP) made by EL UNIVERSO, the provinces with the highest rate of infections in relation to the number of inhabitants they are: Galapagos, El Oro, Pichincha, Bolívar and Cañar.
Between January 4 and 19, Galapagos registered a total of 206 infections per 10,000 inhabitants; Gold, 156; Pichincha, 75; and Bolivar and Canar, 72.
On average, in the rest of the country there are 54 infections per 10,000 inhabitants. Although COVID-19 cases are increasing at the national level, these five provinces are the ones with the highest rates in relation to their population.
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Hugo Miño, responsible for epidemiological surveillance of Zone 5, which includes the provinces of Galápagos, Guayas (rural), Bolívar, Los Ríos and Santa Elena, specifies that, currently, the figures reflect that “positivity rate and transmissibility are very high; practically the transmission is accelerated and it is transmitted in high cases”.
According to Paúl Cárdenas, a specialist in microbiology, the entry of national and foreign tourists to Galapagos has influenced the rise of what he calls “virus introduction events”.
For his part, Miño maintains that the increase in cases is due to human mobility and the lack of interest on the part of the population to continue taking care of themselves and maintaining biosafety standards.
On January 16, the Deputy Minister of Public Health, José Ruales, reported during a press conference that during the second epidemiological week of 2022 -from January 9 to 15- at least 42,000 new infections; that is, on average, one every 14 seconds.
For Cárdenas, mobility, the high level of omicron Transmissibility, the relaxation of the population due to the December festivities and the loss of natural immunity caused by the previous waves are important factors for the increase in cases.
“Many still kept the natural immunity of past infections, but the omicron variant has arrived, which escapes this natural immunity and spreads easily.”
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The epidemiologist Alberto Narváez agrees with this, who also attributes the rise in infections to increased humidity in the environment, because “it favors transmission by aerosols and we are in humidity, (with an index) greater than 85% (of water vapor in the air) throughout the country.”
According to Narváez, the most important form of transmission is saliva. Cough, sneeze, and breath sprays have a very large influence on transmission. “The thickest drops fall, but the thinnest ones stay in the environment. And the more moisture there is, the longer they stay in the surrounding air; if there is no ventilation, the transmission increases”.
The Regional Landscape
In a press conference on January 19, 2022, the World Health Organization warned about the rapid increase in cases in the region and emphasized that “once again unprecedented figures have been reached in the Americas. Last week, nearly 7.2 million infections and more than 15,000 related deaths were reported.”
“Although infections with the omicron variant appear to cause milder disease, we continue to urge maintain caution, because the virus is spreading more actively than ever,” the statement said.
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According to Narváez, the behavior of the ómicron variant is similar to what has been seen in South Africa. “The wave reaches a high level and starts to go down; it reaches a very sharp peak and goes down with the same speed with which it went up”.
He points out that in the event that “this week (January 24) we reach the highest peak, 4 weeks from now (January 20) we will reach a transmission level more or less equal to the date of Christmas, when the wave began.
For his part, Cárdenas recommends speed up vaccination of the booster dose, immunize children under 5 years of age, improve the use of masks and respect distance and capacity. (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.
