A new balance of the Covid-19 pandemic affecting the country took place this afternoon, past one o’clock, and with at least three new things. New Minister of Health, new panel to deliver the data, and a change in the death counting methodology.
Let us remember that yesterday, after the departure of the now ex-Minister Jaime Mañalich, Dr. Enrique Paris assumed the head of the Ministry of Health in the midst of several controversies not only around the numbers of the pandemic but also in the style of the former head of the portfolio. Despite having been part of the group of untouchables for President Sebastián Piñera, having hidden the information from his own, regarding the difference of more than two thousand deceased in the middle of the pandemic, was the final lunge, and the end of the Mañalich era in the second government of the current Mandate.
Add to the latter the unsatisfactory explanations from the Minsal commanded by Mañalich to justify why the determination to set aside WHO recommendations for the accounting of deceased by COVID-19 and which made noise cross-cutting in the different areas of concern in this area.
Today, Rafael Araos, head of the department of epidemiology, was present in the renewed report with Minister Paris and was in charge of publicizing the new methodology to, precisely responding to the controversy, better inform the figures of deaths by Covid-19.
According to the expert, Chile currently reports in a daily report those who died confirmed by Covid-19, that is, “those who died and who appear in their death certificate Covid or some similar word”. In addition, Araos noted, who have a positive PCR test against Sars-CoV2. “That’s what we do and that’s what’s reported on a daily basis,” he explained, reporting that now, after months of an “intense work” from DEIS, the epidemiology department and the support of the Ministry of Science, “we can report not only those confirmed by coronavirus but those deaths that without meeting the confirmatory criteria could have been due to Covid-19.
“This is a huge breakthrough,” said the helmsman of the epidemiology department.
“We will continue to maintain the initial method, implemented, which is to cross the between the Civil Registry certificate plus the positive PCR. And, in parallel, we are going to add to these figures also the probable deceased,” added the new Minister of Health, who was also accompanied by the undersecretaries Arturo Zúñiga, Paula Daza; and the president of the Chilean Society of Intensive Medicine, Tomás Regueira.
“All scientific societies are going to have a place in these meetings and presentations,” said Paris, who also took the opportunity to reiterate his words to the press, thanking the work of journalists and stressing their importance in communicating figures and balance sheets.
“Our strategy is about dialogue, welcoming criticism, listening to people who want to have an opinion, having a fluid relationship with scientific societies and professional colleges,” added the new Minsal holder, further promising that one of its objectives is to strengthen primary care.
Enrique Paris also addressed the possibility of undertaking a change from combat strategy to the coronavirus epidemic that propelled his predecessor, Jaime Mañalich.
Asked about the controversial policy of dynamic quarantines, Paris replied that “reality commands”.
“Dynamic quarantines were based on a different reality than we are living today,” Paris said, noting that the onset of contagion occurred in communes in the Metropolitan Region with a better economic situation and less overcrowding than the number of contagions at the moment.
Asked too, but for his assessment of the work of his colleague Jaime Mañalich, Dr. Paris replied: “I don’t have to evaluate my predecessor.” He explained that he had only words of thanks to the former Secretary of State and that the evaluations were for President Sebastián Piñera.
Enrique Paris also noted that he relies on undersecretaries Arturo Zúñiga and Paula Daza to continue his positions under the new leadership of the portfolio: “I am absolutely aligned with my undersecretaries, happy with them,” he said.
With a new format, now at a table where undersecretaries and representatives of cient societies participatein addition to Paris to the centre, new figures were unveiled.
Regarding the deceased, he reported 222 reported in the last 24 hours, totaling 3,323 fatalities since the start of the pandemic in the country on 3 March.
Health authorities reported 6,938 new contagions reported until 9 p.m. yesterday, the highest number of the crisis, of which 6,358 are symptomatic and 570 asymptomatic. The active cases, i.e. infecting people, are 27,266. While the total number of people who have contracted SARS-CoV-2 is 174,293.
On ICU patients, 1,465 are connected to artificial respiration and 399 in critical condition. In relation to the covid-19 integral network (public and private sector), 306 fans are available.
Also reported were 20,151 PCR exams, reaching a total of 840,150 of these tests practiced since the beginning of these records.
Finally, with regard to health residences, it was reported that there are 12,121 rooms in 131 of these properties available throughout the country.
