To face a flu epidemic in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro, the state government and city hall decided to install service tents in the Emergency Care Unit (UPAs). The decision came after calls were made in the metropolitan region of the capital of Rio de Janeiro in the second half of November and the first week of December.
On Tuesday (7), Vila Olímpica do Alemão, in the North Zone of Rio, received the first tent installed by the city of Rio. It was set up with the expectation of serving 500 patients a day. The municipality also opened another service center in the Olympic Village of Honório Gurgel. On the part of the city, the plan foresees to install seven in all.
Before that, state tents were already functioning throughout the city.
The service points were set up at the UPAs in Marechal Hermes, Botafogo, Tijuca, Jacarepaguá and Penha. “There are very few hospitalizations. It’s a lot in the outpatient clinic. [A epidemia] is serious in [nível] outpatient, but is not having deaths. It really needs more places for outpatient care, and we are opening more places,” he told CNN Governor Cláudio Castro last Thursday (9).
Despite the differentiated care for the flu, the municipal health department continues to advise people with symptoms such as fever, chills, cough, runny nose, sore throat, headache, change in smell and/or taste, also test for Covid- 19. The state suggests that “as most cases are not serious, the ideal is for people to seek care at a health clinic.”
Vaccination was resumed this Friday (10) after a week of waiting with zero influenza vaccine stocks in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The coronavirus vaccine remains available to anyone 12 years of age or older.
The problem is not limited to the Rio de Janeiro capital. The Division of Epidemiological and Environmental Data of the State Health Department pointed out that five other cities in the metropolitan region also had an increase in cases of Influenza registered in the Information System for Notifiable Diseases (Sinan), which was decisive in classifying the situation in the state as an epidemic. These are the municipalities of Belford Roxo, Duque de Caxias, São João de Meriti, Niterói and São Gonçalo.
Reference: CNN Brasil
