Uruguay: Health system on the verge of saturation due to Covid-19

Monday, March 29th 2021 - 10:18 UTC

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This point was expected to be reached on April 4, but the sharp increase in cases accelerated the process. (Photo: Alessandro Maradei)

In Uruguay, 35.6% of operational intensive care beds (ICBs) are occupied by Covid-19 patients, reported the Uruguayan Society of Intensive Care Medicine (SUMI). Medical specialists warn that this is a limit that could lead to problems in the functioning of the ICBs.

SUMI marked this percentage as the “red level” or the limit for the beginning of saturation of the health system. With almost 19,000 patients suffering from the disease and 3,574 new cases detected over the weekend, the increase in cases is clear despite the launch of a successful vaccination campaign this month and the measures announced by the Uruguayan government last week to curb mobility.

According to the graphs presented by SUMI last week, this point was expected to be reached on April 4, but the sharp increase in cases accelerated the process.

The pressured government of Luis Lacalle Pou has received suggestions and demands from the scientific community and the opposition to take more drastic measures to stop to the sustained increase in the number of daily cases of coronavirus.

”It has been foreseen for some time, even in the GACH (Honorary Scientific Advisory Group), although they are also international values, that a saturation level is reached when 35% or more of beds are occupied by Covid. That speaks of a red level in terms of saturation of the total number of beds,“ Julio Pontet, the intensivist who presides SUMI, told Montevideo Portal on Thursday.

”Saturation implies the exhaustion of human and material resources, because we have to use all the time personal protection with these patients. They are patients who generate much more work, they are more unstable, they have to be permanently monitored,” Pontet said.