Peru - Covid6 Jan 2021 18:09
(From The Guardian)
Peru and Bolivia see hospitals overflow and cases rise as fears of second wave grow
The critical care wards of major hospitals in Peru and Bolivia stand at or near collapse after end-of-year holidays, reflecting wider regional public health capacity concerns as much of Latin America struggles to secure adequate Covid-19 vaccine supplies.
While infection counts remain below last year’s peak, depleted resources, weary medical workers and a recent rush of severe cases are taxing already ailing healthcare systems from Chile to Mexico, officials say.
In Bolivia, long lines of patients seeking tests snaked along the street outside a hospital complex in the city of La Paz, prompting fears of worsening contagion amid the chaos.
Bolivian health personnel are seen taking a PCR test to detect Covid-19 outside Hospital de Clinicas in La Paz
Bolivian health personnel are seen taking a PCR test to detect Covid-19 outside Hospital de Clinicas in La Paz Photograph: Jorge Bernal/AFP/Getty Images
Cases in Bolivia have risen in the past two weeks, with an average of 1,153 infections reported daily, around 68% of the country’s July peak, according to a Reuters analysis of official data. La Paz and Santa Cruz, two of the country’s largest cities, have been especially hard hit.
Oscar Romero, the director of the Clinicas hospital in La Paz, said the difference now was that more patients were requiring intensive care, calling the second wave “far more serious”.
In neighbouring Peru, hospitals in the capital, Lima, and nearby Callao, which together service a population of 10 million, had only 16 ICU beds with ventilators available early this week, according to a report from the Peruvian ombudsman’s office. Farther north along the coast, hospitals were full, the report said.
“We’re now paying for the behaviour of the past few weeks,” Fernando Padilla, a regional health chief in northern Peru, told reporters. He said Peruvians had become too relaxed, failing to take proper precautions to avoid contagion.
The daily caseload in Peru remains at just 20% of its August peak, but authorities say more people have been hospitalised because many are waiting until symptoms are severe to take tests.
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