The omicron variant triggers ICU admissions and deaths from coronavirus in Chile

The advance of the contagious omicron variant in chilione of the countries with the highest vaccination rate in the world, has triggered the number of deaths and admissions of patients in intensive care units (ICU), which until now have remained stable.

Since its arrival in December, the variant has raised the daily infected to figures never seen before and recently caused an escalation of patients in the ICU to 720a panorama that has not occurred since August 2021, when the country was emerging from a serious second wave that forced the confinement of 90% of the population.

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“The new admissions are mostly people who have not received any vaccine against covid-19 or have not completed their vaccination schedule”the Minister of Health, Enrique Paris, lamented at a press conference.

Too High numbers of deaths (162) and new cases (36,635) were recorded in the last 24 hourswhich leave the total balance at 2.5 million total cases and 40,273 deaths.

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The national positivity rate, which set a historical record of 26.7% this week, reached 26.1% this Thursday, with the regions with the highest incidence being Coquimbo (central-north) and the southern Araucanía and Los Ríos.

Despite this, Paris explained that the drastic increase in the number of new cases that began in January has slowed down, which implies “a glimmer of hope.”

“Today we have an 18% increase in cases in the last week, well below the 81% increase registered last week”he detailed.

Biochemist Marcelo Alarcón, an academic at the University of Talca, told Efe that the omicron is a variant that increases cases very quickly, but also causes them to decline “at great speed.”

“In mid-February we will reach the ‘peak’ of infections and from there the new infected and admissions to the ICU will fall”, he pointed.

A situation of collapse of the hospital network, like the one that occurred in April 2020, is “very unlikely” because “this variant does not cause such serious conditions,” added the expert.

Although no new confinements or border closures are being considered, the Government has reduced capacity in most regions.

The omicron advances despite the fact that Chile is one of the countries with the highest vaccination rate in the world: more than 92% of the population (19 million inhabitants) have a complete schedule of two doses or a single dose, and more than 12, 6 million people have already received the third injection.

The Government has also initiated the massive administration of fourth doses to those over 55 years of age, which will be followed by those over 18 years of age from March.

The most widely used vaccine is CoronaVac, from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac, although Pfizer/BioNtech, AstraZeneca and Cansino are also administered to a lesser extent.

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Source: Elcomercio

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