Pandemic: Paraguay still in intensive care with new daily record numbers

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The director of Health Surveillance of Paraguay, Guillermo Sequera, said Friday that the data on coronavirus infections, which remain at “a high plateau”, show that the situation in the country is “bad and could be worse”.

The latest Health Ministry report added 3,031 infections, a record number of positives in one day, bringing the total number of cases since the start of the pandemic to 324,063, with deaths exceeding 8,000.

“This week’s data are not so encouraging; we are probably going to go back up a little bit. We are concerned about the number of deaths we are having,” Sequera said at the Health Ministry’s weekly press conference, also alluding to the record 112 deaths in one day last Wednesday.

The spread of the virus in Paraguay accelerated in February when the circulation of the Brazilian variant (P1 Manaus) was detected in the country. Also, of the British variant, both considered “variables of concern”.

Sequera specified that about 90 % of the samples submitted for sequencing correspond to the Brazilian variant.

He also referred to the confirmation of the Indian variant in northern Brazil, which “puts the whole region at risk” as it is already present in the continent.

“South America is on the rise again, and that is worrying,” summarized the director of Health Surveillance.

PERSONAL CARE

The contagion figures and the regional risks bring back into the debate the return of restrictions. Still, Sequera insisted that these measures are of no use if the population does not accompany them.

In this sense, he pointed out the relaxation of personal care measures as one of the sources of danger, since it is in private meetings and not so much in public spaces, where the contagions occur.

“People become infected in meetings where we relax, which are not held outdoors, where utensils are shared. (…) When we get together in the open air, with masks, there will be practically no contagion”, he said.

Sequera asked the population to continue reducing social gatherings and exposure to contagion and referred to pregnant women and baby shower parties since they have been the origin of cases of spread. Paraguay has recorded some 20 deaths in pregnant women and some 1,300 cases of coronavirus in pregnant women.

The director of Health Surveillance avoided talking about new restrictions and reminded that there is a discussion table for these issues in which not only the health authorities are present, but also other ministers of the Executive and different sectors, due to the impact that the restrictions may have on the economy, production and employment.

“We have to take care of ourselves. We are not in favor of a police state that goes around repressing and closing everything. We need people to become aware,” he stressed.

Paraguay, a country with a little more than 7 million inhabitants, has accumulated since the beginning of the pandemic 324,063 infections, with 8,012 deaths and 268,336 recovered.