Cancun, Quintana Roo, (July 31, 2021).- In the last two weeks, the number of COVID-19 patients treated by the Red Cross in Quintana Roo doubled, going from between nine and 11 to more than 20 people a day.
Amilcar Galaviz Aguilar, director of this medical assistance body, explained that there have even been days when up to 25 people infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus have been treated by the Red Cross paramedics.
For this reason, since the pandemic began and until yesterday, the Red Cross has assisted 7,301 people with Covid, which represents an increase in its services of around 20 percent compared to previous years.
Regarding the age of the patients that the Red Cross has treated, the interviewee reported that they have observed that the most usual age range in the last weeks of the patients treated is between 35 to 40 years, followed by people aged 41 to 50 years old and 21 to 30 years old.
“We are seeing that the main patients are young. There are senior citizens too, but unlike last year, we saw many older adults, now we see many young people, especially in productive working age”.
He indicated that most of the people infected by COVID-19 that the Red Cross has treated in recent weeks, are people with self-employment or are engaged in informal commerce activities.
The infections occur in this population because the activities they carry out involve the concentration of people.
Galaviz Aguilar explained that care for those affected by Covid-19 has also increased operating costs, since a normal service has an approximate cost of 1,600 pesos, while care for patients with Covid-19 amounts to 3,600 pesos.
“When we have a patient with Covid-19, our operating costs sky rocket, due to the protective suits and equipment that have to be used, due to the processes to disinfect the units and instruments; all this represents additional time and money that was not previously contemplated. It costs us practically twice as much to care for a patient with Covid-19 than for a normal patient. “
Amilcar Galaviz Aguilar
For this reason, the director of the Red Cross asked the population to maintain sanitary measures to reduce the number of Covid-19 infections, such as continuous hand washing, correct use of a mask, avoid crowds, among others.
Source: Sipse
The Yucatan Times Newsroom
