Number of hospitalizations for Covid rises in Rede D’Or

Rede D’Or, the largest private network of hospitals in Brazil, recorded a rise in hospitalizations for Covid-19. In the last two weeks, the number of patients with the disease in the units of the group rose from 200 to about a thousand.

The increase reflects the higher number of calls at the end of December. The network’s hospitals also saw growth in the amount of care for people with flu syndrome at the end of 2021.

The scenario, however, is different from that seen at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, when the network units reached 3,000 simultaneous hospitalizations. Currently, most patients have mild symptoms and are in rooms or semi-intensive care units.

Rede D’Or has 63 hospitals in ten states. In São Paulo alone there are 22 of them, like São Luiz. The state was the first to register a significant increase in the number of cases in the units of the network, followed by Rio de Janeiro, which has 21 units.

The vice president of medicine and external services at Rede D’Or São Luiz, Leandro Reis, correlates the increase in the number of hospitalizations with the spread of the more transmissible ômicron variant.

Reis says that influenza – the flu virus – resulted in more visits, but in the last month, cases of Covid-19 have grown significantly. Patients vaccinated against the coronavirus, however, when infected, have milder symptoms and have a faster recovery, he said.

“Even when the vaccinated patient is hospitalized, we see a more benign behavior. The patient can go to the room, for a semi-intensive care, have a better preserved lung and maintain a more benign clinical condition than the clinical condition that we seen in the previous wave, with the previous strain”, he says.

The increase in the number of hospitalizations reflects a trend already observed in São Paulo.

As of January 3, there were 1,141 patients in intensive care beds in the state, with 468 new records that day. Just over a week later, on the 11th, there were 1,727 patients admitted to ICU beds, with 895 new records, or 91% more.

Public and private hospitals in SP had also seen growth in the diagnosis and care of children with Covid-19, in addition to a slight increase in hospitalizations. The blackout of government data does not make it possible to know for sure the number of infected, but clinics and hospitals are already aware of the discharge.

report of leaf showed that at the Hospital Infantil Sabará, in the city of São Paulo, the attendance of children up to ten years old with Covid started to increase from the epidemiological week 50, between the 12th and 18th of December. The number jumped from one case a week to 15 in the next two weeks. The positivity rate in Covid tests in the same period went from 2% to 20%.

Last week, doctors at Hospital São Luiz, from Rede D’Or, who asked not to be identified, said the unit advised professionals to carry out tests only on inpatients, so that they could separate patients between wards. Those with mild, asymptomatic symptoms would not be tested, but instructed to self-isolate for a week.

In a note, the network replied that it continues to carry out testing in all its units, prioritizing “patients with clinical indication for the definition of treatment and isolation, hospitalized patients and in health professionals, limiting the performance of elective exams or in patients with good general condition. “.

The network’s stocks are already regularized, and network hospitals have the ability to test all patients who seek them, regardless of the severity of symptoms. There is still, however, priority for health professionals, hospitalized patients and those with signs of seriousness.

Abramed (Brazilian Association of Diagnostic Medicine) recommends that tests be carried out only on patients who have severe symptoms, are hospitalized, have undergone surgery, are part of the risk group or are healthcare workers and essential service employees.

The entity’s recommendation is to stop testing those who have only had contact with infected, asymptomatic patients and people with mild symptoms, who must remain isolated. The scenario, however, shows signs of improvement.