Between the beginning of December of last year and the last Monday (3), first week of 2022, cases of covid-19 registered in the public health system in Rio de Janeiro quadrupled. Within a month, 61 cases were registered at the beginning of December and 261 cases on the first working day of the year, according to the Rio City Hall covid panel.
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However, given the advance of the population’s vaccination campaign, hospitalizations of patients in the public network did not follow the discharge of cases.
This Wednesday (5), there were 25 people hospitalized with covid and showing mild symptoms. In the state of Rio, more severe symptoms in people hospitalized in the public network were observed only in patients who were not immunized with any dose of the vaccine.
Given the high number of cases and the arrival of the omicron variant, which, according to the City of Rio de Janeiro, has now had community transmission, pharmacies and private clinics lack rapid tests for the diagnosis of covid.
According to Abrafarma, an association that brings together the main drugstore chains, between the beginning and the last day of December, the number of rapid exams in pharmacies jumped from 10 thousand to 31 thousand.
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The City of Rio promised to open four more testing points in the capital until next week, with a capacity of 300 exams per day. The municipal secretary of Health, Daniel Soranz, stated that more than 800 nursing technicians who are on the list of approved in public examinations were called to work.
Between the penultimate and the last week of December, the number of free tests (nasal swabs) carried out by the public network of the city of Rio jumped from 5,988 to 17,755 antigen tests. The City Hall informed that it still has 450,000 tests in stock to be distributed to health units in the capital.
Source: BoF Rio de Janeiro
Edition: Eduardo Miranda
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