QUINTANA ROO RUNS OUT OF BEDS TO TREAT COVID PATIENTS

Quintana Roo, Mexico – The sirens are sounding in the streets, someone has just called the emergency services to attend to his relative’s shortness of breath. Once his covid test came back positive, they thought they could take care of him at home, but during the night the case has become more complicated, the anguish has already reached its peak, and now it is harder and harder for him to breathe, he will need an oxygen tank, a ventilator, medicines… they must seek hospital attention.

*Mariana says that although they maintained certain care, she does not know how her brother could have been infected, if he only goes out to work and to do some shopping, an occasional reunion with his colleagues to distract himself, but nothing more….

Arriving at the hospital with a complicated condition after having been infected with covid is usually a tragedy, because for many it is the last resort, and unfortunately the survival rate is very low, according to the newspaper El País out of 5 people who are admitted to the Intensive Care Units (ICU) 4 die, the lethality of the virus is extremely high at that point, and patients are dying but not because the hospital staff is killing them as some people dare to suggest, but because the condition in which they arrive is really critical.

Specifically, Quintana Roo has one of the highest mortality rates, 79.4 percent of the people who access the wards die, in second place is Baja California with 81 percent followed by Sonora with 84.6 percent; even with treatment, 52.4 percent of the Quintana Roo patients die.

With low probabilities of survival in an ICU or after having been intubated, having access to a place is less likely when cases increase, and with this, obtaining medicines also becomes more complicated, according to nexos data, the average time patients are admitted to hospital care after presenting symptoms is 5 days.

The decisions that are being taken today in the state are worrying, as the covid cases do not let up, as of Monday 72 new confirmed cases were reported.

In the corridors of the hospitals, white or blue overalls and gowns are seen going back and forth between the stretchers and wards, doctors are attending a total of 258 hospitalized patients. One thousand 278 people found it better to isolate themselves and deal with the disease on their own.

The streets of the Riviera Maya also tend to have a great displacement among its inhabitants. Since Sunday, 4 of the 11 municipalities of Q.Roo increased their hospital occupancy, in Cancún it went from 27 to 29 percent; Solidaridad from 22 to 24; Othón P. Blanco went from 8 to 14 percent, and the islanders of Cozumel who were kept sheltered, now report 19 percent occupancy.

According to the state government’s website, this week the epidemiological risk traffic light will remain at orange until at least June 20; the rate of increase in the number of cases is concentrated in the northern part of the island. However, in view of the concern regarding the increase of cases in Chetumal, Governor Carlos Joaquín González was urged to implement stronger measures. As of Sunday, the General Hospital of Othón P. Blanco registered 100 percent occupancy of its ventilator beds, while the ISSSTE maintained 60 percent occupancy.

*The hypothetical case that Mariana’s brother could have access to a bed serves here to exemplify the ordeal that anyone could suffer, and it is unfortunate that on many occasions it is no longer possible to even go to a hospital to be treated. For you and for all of us, please take care of yourself.

Translated by Miguel Sánchez