Eight states and DF have ICU occupancy for Covid above 80%

Eight states and the Federal District recorded an occupancy of more than 80% of ICU (intensive care unit) beds for patients with Covid-19 this Monday (31), including a state in a state of collapse.

Mato Grosso do Sul has an occupancy of 103% of the beds – a scenario that happens when there are more hospitalized patients than beds originally available for the care of critically ill patients.

Next, the state of Goiás appears with 90% of capacity, followed by Distrito Federal, Pernambuco, Piauí, Mato Grosso, Rio Grande do Norte, Espírito Santo and Ceará, all with occupation above 80%. Data are from state governments.

Brazil is experiencing an explosion of Covid-19 cases with the escalation of the omicron variant. This Monday, the country completed 14 days of records in the moving averages of cases of the disease.

Bed occupancy also follows an upward trend – despite the opening of about 1,100 new beds for critically ill patients in the last week, occupancy has grown proportionately in 18 states.

The Midwest region is the one that faces the most difficult scenario in relation to the availability of beds, with the four states in a critical situation.

In Mato Grosso do Sul, even with the opening of 13 new ICU beds over the last week, the occupancy rate is above the limit. There are 161 patients for 156 available beds, resulting in an occupancy of 103%. The same happens with pediatric beds, whose rate is at 120%.

The increase in hospitalizations reflects the worsening in the state’s epidemiological indicators. This Tuesday (1st), the state broke another record, registering 4,902 cases of Covid-19 in 24 hours. As a result, the moving average rose to 3,197 cases.

Campo Grande, capital of the state, led the rise, with 1,799 new infections in 24 hours. The city’s ICU beds are still under pressure, with 87% occupancy. However, the percentage recorded is lower than last week, when all beds were occupied.

In Mato Grosso, the situation is similar: the state’s intensive care units are at 86% occupancy. The percentage is similar to last week, but 35 new beds were opened throughout the week.

In the capital, Cuiabá, 100% of the 30 beds for patients with Covid-19 in the municipal network are occupied. The city records high demand for Covid tests in pharmacies and laboratories. There are complaints about fluctuations in test prices, which led the local Procon to intensify inspections on establishments to curb possible abuses.

The Federal District had 89% of ICU beds occupied on Monday. The federation unit has 85 ICU beds for Covid for adults.

Of this amount, 76 are busy, 7 are blocked awaiting release and 2 are vacant. The federation unit also has 14 neonatal and pediatric ICU beds, 6 of which are occupied.

The scenario is similar in Goiás, where the 203 ICU beds of the public health network are 90% occupancy, maintaining the growth trend recorded last week.

Four states in the Northeast also face a critical situation. The most serious is Pernambuco, where ICU beds reached 88% occupancy in the second. On the same day of the previous week, the percentage was 80%.

The state is going through a delicate moment of Covid-19. On Saturday (29), it broke a record for daily cases of the entire pandemic: 6,581 infected in 24 hours.

On January 28, the Government of Pernambuco prohibited state public health professionals from taking a vacation for 60 days, until the end of March, because of the omnipresent variant.

Still, the government maintained until February 15 the release for private parties with up to 3,000 people in open spaces and up to 1,000 people in closed spaces. The state administration has yet to decide whether to allow private Carnival events, concentrated in Recife and Olinda.

In Piauí, the occupancy rate reached 87%, surpassing the total registered a week ago, which was already high, of 82%.

In some health units in the interior of the state, there are no more vacancies in ICUs. This is the case of the Dirceu Arcoverde State Hospital, in Parnaíba, where 17 beds were occupied this Monday, and of the Chagas Rodrigues Regional Hospital, in Piripiri, with all its ten beds in use.

The states of Rio Grande do Norte and Ceará are also in a critical situation. In the latter, 81% of the 374 ICU beds for adults were occupied in the second, according to the state health department.

In Rio Grande do Norte, there are 106 intensive care beds occupied and 21 available, an occupancy rate of 83%. On the other hand, the situation in pediatric ICUs cooled with the expansion of the number of beds, and the occupancy dropped to 62%.

Until last Thursday (27), of the 19 people hospitalized in ICU beds at Hospital Giselda Trigueiro, the main reference unit for the care of Covid-19 cases in the state, 18 had not completed the vaccination schedule. Half of these patients had no record of any dose.

“We still have a number of deaths that, although low, already exceeds the number of December, and the profile that has occurred in the state are people, mostly elderly, with comorbidities and who do not have a complete vaccination schedule”, says Diana Rêgo. , sub-coordinator of epidemiological surveillance of the secretariat.

Among the states in the Southeast, Espírito Santo faces the worst scenario, with 83% of beds for critically ill patients occupied. This Monday, the state began to require a vaccination passport for entry into gyms, bars and restaurants, as well as events.

In the state of São Paulo, the occupancy rate is 72%. Of the 11,316 suspected and confirmed Covid-19 patients hospitalized across the state, 3,994 were in intensive care units.

The occupancy percentage remained stable compared to last week, when 71% of beds were in use. But this happened because new beds were opened: there were 5,525 beds in intensive care this Monday against 4,855 seven days earlier.

With the increase in infections caused by the ômicron variant, on the 26th, the state government announced an expansion of 700 new beds, to support municipalities in the fight against the pandemic. The expansion will run until February 6th.

In Rio Grande do Sul, the occupancy of SUS ICUs is 55% – the state panel counts the total number of beds, not just those reserved for Covid cases. The total number of hospitalized with confirmed and suspected cases of Covid-19, in public and private beds, is 638 people.

This Tuesday, the State Department of Health released a survey that points out that 65% of hospitalizations in the state and 67% of deaths related to the disease, this January, occurred in people who were not vaccinated or who received only one dose.

The month of January 2022 has the highest circulation of cases in the state since the beginning of the pandemic, says the secretary, with at least 316 thousand new cases registered, surpassing the total for the second half of 2021. The number is partial, since other Period-related infections can be computed over the next few days.