Number of hospitalized in beds for Covid grows 561% in Amazonas

The explosion of Covid-19 cases in Amazonas has increased the number of patients admitted to infirmary and ICU beds, as well as hospitalizations in the public and private health systems.

The number of ICU beds occupied by patients with Covid-19 more than doubled in Manaus at the beginning of the year. On January 1, there were 23 patients hospitalized in serious condition, a number that jumped to 73 this Monday (17).

In the state, the infirmary beds, with 271 hospitalized for Covid-19, also put pressure on the health system. Occupancy on Monday was 561% higher than on January 1, when 41 people were hospitalized.

The greatest pressure and gave on children’s clinical beds. The number of children hospitalized rose from three on January 1 to 40 on Monday. The percentage of occupancy of this type of bed reached 80%.

The current occupancy of children’s clinical beds in Amazonas exceeds that recorded on the eve of the second collapse of the health system. Ten days before the health system collapsed with lack of oxygen, on January 14, 2021, Amazonas had 20 children hospitalized, between clinical beds and the red room (created to wait for ICU).

At UPA Campos Sales, west of Manaus, children were waiting for assistance along with adults on Monday, some sitting on the sidewalks outside the UPA with a downcast face.

Erlane Lopes da Silva’s nine-year-old daughter, 31, had flu-like symptoms and had worsened with fever, nausea and stomach pain. He hadn’t eaten all day. Mother and daughter had been waiting for about an hour for testing and care.

A UPA official reported that the tests ended on Saturday (15). He also reported that the UPA, unlike in January of last year, did not even have an inpatient.

According to the data released in the daily bulletins of the FVS (Fundação de Vigilância Sanitário do Amazonas), since the cases of Covid increased, the public and private networks opened new clinical and ICU beds. In 17 days, the ICUs were expanded from 83 to 112.

Clinical beds more than doubled in 17 days. There were 134 on January 1, a number that jumped to 330 beds this Monday.

The opening of new beds was the strategy to face the pandemic carried out in the months before the second collapse of the Amazon health system, in January of last year.

At the time, however, the uncontrolled movement of people in a period of acceleration of the disease and the emergence of a new variant in Manaus made the supply of beds insufficient, resulting in deaths from lack of assistance and lack of oxygen in the state.

The epidemiological bulletins of the government of Amazonas point out that between December 31, 2021 and January 12, 2022, there was an “accelerated increase” of 700% in the daily average of Covid-19 cases.

This Saturday (15), the Government of Amazonas changed from the yellow phase, with low risk of contagion, to the orange phase, with moderate risk of contagion. The epidemiologist Jesen Orellana, from Fiocruz Amazonas, says that the new risk classification of the state is extemporaneous and underestimates the severity of the epidemiological picture.

“This pattern of exponential growth, fatally, refers to the critical moments of the second half of December 2020, antechamber of chaos and deaths from suffocation weeks later. Therefore, it would not be an exaggeration to classify the health situation as high risk”, he says.

The Amazonas Health Surveillance Foundation highlights that, in addition to the number of infected, other parameters are taken into account to reclassify the epidemiological risk scale in the state.

​Data from the government of Amazonas indicate that the unvaccinated are the majority among those hospitalized, but those vaccinated with two doses are also occupying beds at this time.

About 50% of those admitted to the ICU and 53.8% of those occupying clinical beds did not take any dose of vaccine. The greater chance of the condition worsening among unvaccinated people is a cause for concern.

At least 33% of the total population of Amazonas has not taken any dose of the vaccine against Covid-19. There are still another 630 thousand people with the second dose after the deadline and 756 people with the third dose after the deadline in Amazonas.

The housewife Morezata Garcia, 33, who did not take any dose of the vaccine, was this Monday, wearing a cloth mask, waiting for care for her 11-month-old daughter at UPA Campos Sales, crowded with people with flu and Covid-19 symptoms. 19.

She rocked the child on her lap while the girl cried. According to the housewife, the girl had a fever and had been waiting more than an hour to be evaluated by the doctor. When asked about vaccines, she said she was not in favor of vaccinating children because of news “about the risks”.

Vaccination of children was released by Anvisa and is recommended by pediatricians and infectious disease specialists.

The increase in cases of Covid-19 and influenza also generated casualties in the health system. The Union of Nursing Technicians and Nurses of the State of Amazonas estimates that 2,000 employees are on leave due to respiratory diseases.

A leaf asked the Government of Amazonas for the number of doctors on leave due to Covid and flu, but in the response sent to the report there was no indication of the number.

The Secretary of Health of Amazonas, Anoar Samad, announced a call for health professionals for immediate and temporary hiring after an increase in infected servers.

An employee of a SPA (emergency care service) on the east side said that, over the weekend, testing for Covid-19 was suspended in the middle of the shift because there were no employees to replace those who had a medical certificate.

At the Alvorada SPA, in the south-central area of ​​Manaus, where queues outside the unit have been frequent, employees report being away from people who work in X-rays, kitchens, nurses, among others.