The Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, said this Monday (10) that Brazil is in a position to offer the necessary number of ICU beds if the Ômicron variant of Covid-19 leads to an increase in hospitalizations. “In the worst-case scenario, we have the ability to double intensive care beds, if that’s the case,” he said.
According to Queiroga, before the pandemic, the country had 23,000 ICU beds available. In the period with the highest number of hospitalizations, this capacity rose to 43,000.
“Over the course of 2021, especially in the last six months, there was an important drop in deaths, around 90%, naturally there was a lower need for ICU beds, and the states and municipalities themselves asked for their disabling”, said the minister.
Uncertain, but with good expectation
The minister said that the scenario of the pandemic is still uncertain, but that the ministry expects something similar to what has been seen in countries such as Spain, the United Kingdom and France to happen in Brazil.
“We hope that there will not be an explosion of hospital admissions, and also a proportional increase in deaths, because our population is heavily vaccinated,” he said. “But we have to wait for the evolution of the pandemic to have a more definitive position on the subject.”
Quarantine Reduction
Marcelo Queiroga informed that a meeting should take place this Monday to define whether the isolation time of patients with the Ômicron variant will be reduced from ten to five days. “Today we will have a definition on the issue of quarantine, of those who contract, for example, the Ômicron variant, to shorten this period. The Department of Surveillance and Health should meet with Conass [Conselho Nacional de Secretários de Saúde] and Conasems [Conselho Nacional de Secretarias Municipais de Saúde] for us to beat the final position.”
The minister even said that a meeting with the heads of Secovid (Extraordinary Secretariat to Combat Covid-19) and the Health Surveillance Secretariat would take place last Friday (7) to deal with the case. “If I’m not mistaken, the CDC [Centro de Controle e Prevenção de Doenças, dos Estados Unidos] already made that recommendation. The French government is even allowing health professionals who are positive to attend on the front line, due to the number of cases. So, this is being analyzed”, said Queiroga at the time.
This Monday morning, the minister also spoke about the new recommendation by Anvisa (Sanitary Surveillance Agency), which authorizes the entry into the country of people from six African nations, the continent where the first cases of the Ômicron variant were recorded. Restrictions were imposed on passengers from South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and Zimbabwe. By the new decision, entry into Brazil is allowed as long as the guidelines defined for other travelers of international origin are met.
“The Health Surveillance Agency forwarded a suggestion to relax the restriction among African citizens, from countries that were closed due to the Ômicron variant. The cabinet that deals with this matter, composed of the Civil House of the Presidency of the Republic, Justice and Health, must analyze this issue”, he declared.
