Guayaquil doctors track the BA.2 subvariant, which worries other countries due to its contagion power

Guayaquil has taken a step this Monday 21 to further relax the restrictions due to the drop in COVID-19 infections that has been experienced in the last weeks of February.

But the presence of new subvariants of COVID-19 that have been detected in other countries continues to cause concern and leads doctors to urge the population not to abandon biosecurity measures.

In the world, the BA.2 subvariant, detected in Denmark, is being monitored because it could be more contagious as omicron, but not more dangerous.

Guayaquil goes to level 1 of epidemiological alert; COVID-19 cases fell, but doctors call to maintain biosecurity

Weeks ago, Denmark had detected an explosive growth and determined that it was 1.5 times more contagious.

The doctors who make up the Guayaquil health table keep track of these new subvariants. Carlos Farhat, director of the cantonal technical table, argued that this variant has a transferable power.

“If the omicron that was highly transmissible spread around the world in two to four weeks, imagine what would happen to these two variants,” he said.

Farhat acknowledged that in Denmark the restrictions were eliminated and days after that decision the infections with this subvariant went up.

Guayaquil has gone from 1,500 to 250 daily COVID-19 infections, a drop compared to the difficult weeks of January

The epidemiologist argued that in the face of these threats, one should not lower our guard and epidemiological surveillance must remain active, such as genomic surveillance. “It must remain active to detect it in a timely manner,” he said.

The latest WHO report states that this variant has not been shown to be more lethal. “They have a group of experts and they still haven’t proven that it is more lethal, but it is more transmissible,” Farhat said.

It is shown that the vaccines cover omicron and other variants, said Carlos Sandoval, director of health for the Municipality, commenting on the presence of the new subvariant.

This Monday, in the epidemiological report, it was indicated that Guayaquil went from alert 2 to 1 due to the decrease in patients in hospitals and deaths due to COVID-19.

Salvador explained that the contagion rates have dropped considerably in the city.

In epidemiological week number 7, there were 1,600 new cases, which corresponds to 233 patients per day, and an incidence rate of 5.42 per 10,000 inhabitants.

“In the ICU it fell from 77 occupied beds to 64, a decrease of 17%. While in hospitalization it fell from 110 cases to 96, a decrease of 13%, “explained Dr. Farhat. (I)