We are far from Covid-19 numbers from the beginning of the year, says Gorinchteyn

The Secretary of Health of São Paulo, Jean Gorinchteyn, explained, this Monday (14th), in an interview with CNN that the current figures for Covid-19, with the BQ.1 subvariant, are still far from the diagnoses recorded at the beginning of the year, with the Ômicron variant.

“As of October 24, we had an increase in the number of cases, but, above all, an impact with an increase in hospitalizations, both in the Intensive Care Units (ICU), which reached 64%, and an increase of 50% in the wards. Just because we are talking about very significant percentage numbers, the absolute number in relation to cases was much smaller”, said Gorinchteyn.

According to the secretary, today, in ICU beds, there are just over 500 patients hospitalized across the state. Before the end of October there were approximately 228.

“In this way, we are far from those numbers that we saw so much in the second wave, or even at the beginning of the year, when we had 4,500 occupied ICU beds. This is due to vaccination, an extremely robust vaccination program, which gave not just two doses of vaccine, but two additional doses, making a total of four doses”, he continues.

However, not all people completed the vaccination schedule. Ten million people missed the second dose, including children. In the third dose, in the state of SP alone, there are 7 million doses delayed, reported Gorinchteyn.

It is still recommended by the secretary that people with comorbidities and those who are part of their family nucleus use a mask.

The Health Surveillance Secretariat of the Ministry of Health also recommended again last Sunday (13) the use of protection for the population most vulnerable to the virus, such as immunosuppressed, elderly, pregnant women and people with multiple comorbidities.