Mexico is only one week into phase three and many clinics are already at full capacity.
Amid the uncertainty in some areas of the Health system, Mexico enters this week the most critical phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, which, according to authorities, will have its highest number of infections and deaths around May 15th.
The saturation of some public and private hospitals to receive critically ill patients, as well as the report of 1,934 contagions in medical personnel, have turned on the “red lights”, in phase three of the epidemic.
Out of the 5,821 reconverted health units for intubated patients, of which 22 percent are already occupied. According to El Financiero, there is a deficit of specialists in critical medicine, as 1,351 deaths have been registered.
Hugo López-Gatell, government spokesman for the COVID-19 crisis, assured that “supersaturation” has not yet occurred in hospitals and stated that there are still 78 percent of beds available.
He stated that there are 610 COVID hospitals in the country with 11,634 beds to attend the pandemic, of which five percent are for intensive therapy (intubated patients), that is, 5,821 beds.
“Of the beds with mechanical assisted ventilation, 12 percent are occupied and 88 percent available. The daily notification mechanism by the 610 COVID-19 hospitals is the most important for monitoring in phase three,” López Gatell stated.
However, last week President Andrés Manuel López Obrador reported that Mexico has 6,425 intensive care beds for the attention of COVID-19, that is, 604 more than those mentioned by López-Gatell.
So far, the Ministry of Health has registered 5,373 patients hospitalized for COVID-19 of the 13,842 confirmed cases, which represents 38.82 percent of the total number of positive cases.
The saturation of hospitals in Mexico City continues, since last week, hospitals such as the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER), the Manuel Gea González Hospital, as well as the National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition “Salvador Zubirán”, are working at full capacity.
In addition, the General Hospital of Mexico, the Hospital Juárez, of the Ministry of Health, as well as the Regional Hospital Primero de Octubre, of the ISSSTE and the Hospital of Infectology of the National Medical Center La Raza, of the IMSS, are also full.
Among the private health centers that no longer have spaces to attend to patients with coronavirus are the Spanish Hospital, the Ángeles Interlomas Hospital, the Durango Hospital, the Ángeles Pedregal Hospital, the Ángeles Metropolitano Hospital and the Ángeles Mocel Hospital.
CDMX and Baja California, are almost at 50% of their total hospital capacity.
With hospital saturation of almost 50 percent in Mexico City and Baja California, the Ministry of Health reported 46 new deaths from COVID-19, bringing the total number of deaths to 1,351 in the last 24 hours.
José Luis Alomía, director of Epidemiology at the Health Secretariat, explained that hospitals across the country are at 20 percent capacity, that is, 11,500 beds available and 3,358 beds occupied.
The official pointed out that in terms of beds to serve critically ill coronavirus patients (intubated), 13 percent are occupied and 83 percent are available, while Edomex, Baja California and Mexico City are the states that have the largest number of occupied beds with fans.
Hugo López-Gatell, federal government spokesman for the pandemic, condemned coercive measures and the use of public force in some municipalities in the country, and warned that “there is in no way a state of exception in Mexico.”
“All the measures that have been announced for the epidemiological contingency must be followed with full respect for human rights and constitutional guarantees,” he stressed.
The Yucatan TimesNewsroom
