MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Covid-19: Health situation in Uruguay worsens amid successful vaccination campaign

The National Academy of Medicine warned that Uruguay “is heading towards an epidemiological situation without control” (Photo: Sebastián Astorga)

Although a few weeks ago we talked about Uruguay as a milestone in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, with very few daily cases and a lower mortality rate than any other country in the region, the country of 3.5 million inhabitants surpassed this Sunday the 13 thousand active cases after several record days of daily positives. Scientific and medical societies are demanding measures to stop the spread of the virus despite the fact that 1 out of 10 Uruguayans have already received the first dose of the vaccine – Pfizer or Coronavac – against the disease.

On Sunday, a new daily record in new cases of Covid-19 was registered: 1625 positive swabs in the country. Likewise, one out of ten deaths caused by the disease occurred last week, when 70 of the 792 deaths registered since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020,  when the government of President Luis Lacalle Pou declared the health emergency.

While the increase in daily cases was known, the Uruguayan Society of Intensive Care Medicine (SUMI) warned that in two weeks the country's Intensive Care Treatment Centers (CTI) could be saturated.

SUMI stated in a publication on Twitter that a linear growth in the number of infections since the beginning of March would lead to overcrowding of the country's ICUs on April 4.

There are 175 patients with severe cases of covid-19 requiring hospitalization. In Rivera, a state bordering Brazil, some of the most critical cases have already required referral other states due to insufficient resources. Similarly, the warning in this case is nationwide.

This Sunday also saw the opening of the vaccination schedule for people between 18 and 70 years old to inject 175 thousand doses of the Sinovac vaccine during Easter week. The system received more than 700 thousand requests that will be scheduled as more doses arrive in Uruguay.

The Uruguayan Interdisciplinary Group for Data Analysis (Guiad) warned that the data “generate a dynamic of disease progression that in the short term does not seem reversible through the vaccination plan”, despite the fact that by this Sunday almost 312,000 people had already received their first injection of the two required to achieve immunity.

The same group issued this Sunday a statement in which it diagnosed a “very worrying scenario”. It stressed the need to take measures to reduce mobility, and expressed its conviction that the country should “seriously consider increasing social investment as a lockdown strategy”.

The National Academy of Medicine (ANM) issued a communiqué to urge the population to comply with social distancing and vaccination in view of the increase of covid-19 infections.

The ANM called to “avoid any type of face-to-face social activity, especially the organization or attendance to events or celebrations that have been and are the most important factor in the generation of the lack of control that we are experiencing”.

Without “strict compliance” with health recommendations and the estimation of conspiratorial slogans that speak negatively of the use of vaccines, “the country is heading towards an epidemiological situation without control, which generates unrecoverable social, economic and health damage,” concludes the statement issued by the ANM Board of Directors.