Concern over increase in number of children hospitalized with Covid-19 in Buenos Aires

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The health authorities of the Garrahan Hospital, one of the pediatric centers of reference in Argentina, showed their concern this Thursday about the increase in hospitalizations of children with covid-19 due to the sustained increase in the number of cases among minors in the second wave of the pandemic.

“As of today, we have 39 patients who are hospitalized, of which three are in the intensive care unit,” Rosa Bologna, head of Epidemiology at Garrahan Hospital, a health center located in Buenos Aires, explained to the media on Thursday.

According to Bologna, the wards of the Garrahan Hospital dedicated to patients with SARS-CoV-2 “are at 100%”, while the intensive care units have a current occupancy rate of 80%.

In this regard, the official said that this situation started in mid-March when the number of infections began to increase in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area (AMBA).

“At that time, the number of confirmed cases doubled here at the hospital, and by the first week of April, they had quadrupled to a level of cases that is higher, double, the highest level of 2020,” she said.

Read: Why do so many babies die from Covid in Brazil?

Most pediatric patients have “moderate symptoms,” and 80% had underlying diseases at the time of hospitalization. However, according to Bologna, there is also an “important group” that came to the health center for the first time.

SCHOOLS, A POSSIBLE SITE OF TRANSMISSION

The head of Epidemiology at the Hospital maintained that school could be the main site of coronavirus transmission among young people, adding that this is a “guess” because “it is not specifically documented.”

“We have the 10 to 19 (year-old) group, which are patients who circulate at school, meetings… And then there is the other group, from six to nine, that suggests the school could be a place of transmission,” said Bologna.

These statements come in the midst of the second wave of contagions in the South American country, which in the last fourteen days registered more than 300,000 new coronavirus cases.

Given this scenario, since last April 9 and until April 30, there have been restrictions on nighttime circulation. The government of Alberto Fernandez decided to extend them in Buenos Aires and its periphery last Friday.

The Executive also ordered the suspension for two weeks of on-site classes in schools in the AMBA -a restriction which is being settled in the courts- and of recreational, social, cultural, sports, and religious activities and gastronomic services in closed places, and that commerce should operate at shorter hours.