Covid-19 cases in Uruguay with no identified link increase to 55%

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Fifty-five percent of Covid-19 cases registered in Uruguay have no identified link, according to the latest epidemiological report released by the Ministry of Public Health (MSP), which shows an increase of 8 points in this figure in just 10 days.

From the previous report, presented on April 10, to the most recent one, closed on April 19, the number of cases whose epidemiological thread could not be identified increased by 8%.

“Of the confirmed cases, 44% have a history of contact with a confirmed case on national territory, 1% of the cases are linked to international travel, and 55% have not been identified as having a link”, the report highlights, adding that 15% of the infected persons have no “notion of exposure”.

The report, which closes with 167,033 infections since March 2020 (this Wednesday it reached 172,601 according to the information provided by the National Emergency System, which provides daily figures), recognizes that “the number of active cases accumulated per day showed a stabilization” despite the “sustained increase” in previous weeks.

Among the data collected by the MSP, it is recorded that of all the accumulated cases, 4% required hospital admission, 3% moderate care, and 1% intensive care (UTI), whose managers complained in recent weeks of saturation in the service.

Uruguay is experiencing the worst moment of the pandemic since the health emergency was declared on March 13, 2020, when the first four positive cases were detected.

This Wednesday, April 21, the country added another 3,284 new infections in 17,646 PCR tests to reach 27,969 active cases. Of these, 523 people are hospitalized in intensive care. The daily report of the National Emergency System (Sinae) also recorded the death of 61 people, bringing the number of deaths from the disease to 2,083.

At the same time, Uruguay is one of the countries with the highest percentage of vaccination (mostly with the first dose) since it started its inoculation plan on March 1.

By Thursday, April 22, almost 1.5 million doses of vacines by the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac, the Anglo-Swedish AstraZeneca, or the American Pfizer have been administered in the country.