The government of Rio de Janeiro sent a letter to the Ministry of Health alleging “abrupt and substantial increase in cases” of Covid-19 in the state of Rio de Janeiro “due to the Ômicron variant” and requesting the sending of 2.1 million tests antigen-like rapids.
The document obtained by the CNN is signed by Mário Sérgio Ribeiro, Undersecretary of Surveillance and Primary Health Care of Rio de Janeiro, and forwarded to Rodrigo Cruz, Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Health.
State portfolio reserves have rapidly depleted. The tests are used by the state government service units and also by the municipal service posts.
“The amount we have today is enough for another week. There are about 600 thousand tests in stock. We distribute it proportionally to the population to the cities and the demand soared”, he told the CNN the State Secretary of Health, Alexandre Chieppe.
The document also details government actions to contain the Ômicron variant. “We have expanded the testing posts in all UPAs under state management, in hospital units in strategic municipalities, as well as opening testing centers, whose forecast will be to carry out 500 tests a day”, states the text.
The Rio de Janeiro government’s request is for a weekly shipment in three shipments of 700,000 tests. That way they would be able to organize the distribution logistics. If the request is accepted, around 900,000 tests would stay with the capital and the rest would go to the other 91 cities in the state.
In the first week of 2022, the CNN caught queues at various testing sites both in the public network and the private network. In some places, test availability is still scarce.
A CNN contacted the Ministry of Health to find out if the request will be granted and is awaiting a return.
Reference: CNN Brasil
