Health Ministry readies for the sixth wave of Covid -19

The variants that are generating the sixth wave of covid 19, according to the Gorgas Memorial Institute, are 70% BA.5 and B.2.1, which is the one that has been detected in recent days.

The variants, despite having high transmissibility, the Panamanian health system has not yet suffered the effect, confirmed by the director of epidemiology Lourdes Moreno.

She said that the capacity of the Ministry of Health has not been diminished, but they are carrying out t evaluations of the installed capacity to be ready at a given moment.

The regions with the highest incidence rate are Herrera, Los Santos, and Panamá Norte, for which she called on people to continue with biosecurity measures, use masks in places that have crowds, and those who have not completed their vaccination schedule to get protected.

“This is a matter of self-care, self-protection because the pandemic has not gone away,” she said.

The doctor stressed the importance of people not assuming that they are suffering from a cold and go to get tested, since they could be expanding the chain of contagion both at home and at work, and if the disease becomes complicated, and could compromise the lungs and reach the hospital in serious condition.

She recalled that the most vulnerable people are the same as before: older adults, people with chronic diseases or immunosuppressed.

She called on parents to take their children to be vaccinated because the situation with the respiratory syncytial virus is getting more complicated.

She said that the use of masks is still mandatory on public transport, health facilities, and food handlers.

Moreno said that people who have not completed their vaccination scheme can go to health centers and polyclinics to be inoculated, and insisted on parents protect their children from the respiratory syncytial virus that is filling children’s wards.

 “The last thing you want is to have a respiratory virus coinfection with covid-19.”