Carnival cancellation pushed as covid cases head to 20,000 daily

An exponential increase in Covid-19 cases to 20,000 daily is expected, and knowing that the hospital capacity of public and private hospitals is at 40%, Dr. Julio Sandoval has recommended the cancelation of carnivals to Health  Minister Luis Francisco Sucre.

He stated that it is an issue that should have come out of the discussion a long time ago and a firm decision should have been made to cancel them

With hospital capacity at the limit and the wave of infections accelerating in the coming weeks, it is dangerous for public health to allow carnivals and crowds where there will be no capacity, the use of masks properly for multiple hours and consecutive days.

Sandoval, based on the guidelines of the, (CDC), suggests updating quarantine/isolation criteria, proposing that anyone who has had contact with a + case and is fully vaccinated should not quarantine and follow strict use of masks.

In addition, shorten the quarantine to five days, especially in the case of essential personnel for the country, carrying out an antigen test or PCR on the fifth day so that they can return to work with strict use of a mask.

Another recommendation that he has made, like other doctors, is to promote and facilitate the “home tests”, which have a sensitivity and specificity >90%.

“The ideal thing would be to be able to streamline bureaucratic procedures together with the Gorgas Institute, so that companies that meet the requirements can include Panama on their import list and count on them as soon as possible and, if possible, before the start of the import process. of the school period”, highlights the document.

Regarding traceability, Sandoval indicates that with 20,000 cases per day it is almost impossible to apply adequate traceability.

 He considers it necessary to redirect efforts towards the population at greatest risk and

emphasize traceability in them: for example unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, chronic degenerative diseases, and older adults.

He continues by saying that reconversion of beds and cancellation of elective surgeries for at least 4 weeks to guarantee hospital capacity and that we have the capacity to care for all patients with moderate-severe disease, for this to concentrate human resources and defer all elective procedures, the Outpatient consultation in polyclinics and health centers could move to teleconsultation during this 4-week omicron peak.

In addition, acquiring Molnupiravir and Paxlovid, both antiviral drugs that interact with other drugs, the first is not recommended in pregnancies or  under18 years. Stop the use of these drugs for moderate-severe hospitalized cases and under a strict multidisciplinary protocol: emergency physicians, internists, geriatricians, infectious disease specialists, pulmonologists, and intensivists.

Stop distributing drugs such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin to the population when there is extensive international literature that they have no role in the disease.