USP hospital sees sudden increase in cases and hospitalizations for Covid in three days

The high of Covid in the last two weeks already verified in São Paulo has exploded the number of new confirmed cases of coronavirus at the University Hospital of USP, in the west of SP.

Last week, the hospital center had no hospitalization for Covid and no record of sick leave for Covid in employees. In the last 72 hours, however, 26 cases were confirmed in employees and seven new hospitalizations for the coronavirus: two in adults and five in children.

The sudden rise is worrying because the employees on leave include professionals from the pediatric ward, precisely the one that currently has the highest number of hospitalizations – although the situation of children is relatively stable, according to the epidemiologist and health superintendent at USP, Paulo Lotufo.

“It’s worrying because of the speed with which these cases emerged, and even the children don’t have a serious condition, they need care”, he explains.

The discharge of pediatric hospitalizations has also been verified in private hospitals in SP, such as the Children’s Hospital Sabará. This Thursday (10), the state government issued an alert about the 56% increase in ICU admissions due to Covid in the state and 50% in infirmary beds.

“The Secretariat of Science, Research and Development in Health (SCPDS) of the Government of São Paulo decided to issue an alert for the significant increase in the transmission of the new coronavirus in the state”, said the note.

“Although this is a significant increase, the committee highlights that the number of people hospitalized for Covid is still much lower than the numbers observed in previous waves. Several subvariants of the omicron variant are currently circulating, including confirmed cases and death from infection by the BQ subvariant. 1”, he added.

The biggest concern is for children under 5 years of age, who face setbacks in immunization against Covid, such as interruptions due to lack of doses and delays in the campaign. Also on Thursday, the Ministry of Health announced the beginning of the distribution of doses of Pfizer for children with comorbidities under 3 years old.

According to Lotufo, the increase in cases is due to the withdrawal of the use of masks, in early September, and a greater agglomeration of people in recent weeks. The intense flow of travelers from abroad, especially from countries in Europe and the United States, also contributed to the introduction of new subvariants of the coronavirus, such as BQ.1, which has already been identified in SP, Rio de Janeiro, Amazonas and Rio de Janeiro. Great South.

“It is important to understand that variants arise due to increased transmission of the virus, and not the other way around; therefore, the presence of a variant that can escape more antibodies at a time of high cases is a warning sign,” he says.

According to the note from the state government, the department sees the importance of redoubling care in hospital settings and health services, including pharmacies.

“We recommend the use of masks in situations of greater risk for transmission of the virus, such as public transport, and the need to use masks in health services, including pharmacies, where symptomatic people are more likely to seek testing and symptomatic medication for flu conditions. “, completes the note.