DOMINICAN REPUBLIC – The Director of Epidemiology of the Ministry of Health, Ronald Skewes, explained this Wednesday that one of the factors that may have an impact on the increase reflected in hospital occupancy by COVID-19, may be related to the removal of some of the beds that were available for these purposes.
“With regard to hospital occupancy, we must say that we are observing with concern the increase in occupancy, but we must explain some phenomena that may be behind this increase,” Skewes said, referring to the issue of removal of beds, as part of the restoration of other health services.
According to the epidemiological bulletin number 265, of the 2,788 beds made for COVID-19 patients, about 812 are occupied, that is, 29%. While the use in ICU is located at 47%, since 213 beds of the 454 available are currently used.
“From September 1 to present, the beds available for COVID-19 have been reduced by 26%, that means that almost a quarter of the beds are not available for COVID-19,” he said and explained that this effectively affects the hospital occupation.
Skewes noted that because hospitalizations for COVID-19 began to decline a few months ago, hospitals have removed some beds for patients with coronavirus, which translates into a 26% reduction in these beds.
On the other hand, the epidemiologist indicated that they continue to observe with concern the cases that occurred in November, due to an increase in cases, for which the positivity increased slightly.
He added that, meanwhile, fatality continues to decline, regardless of the number of beds available.
During the month of November, 7,545 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed.
Skewes highlighted the trend of the five districts and said that while in November the National District, Santo Domingo, Duarte, Monsignor Nouel and San José de Ocoa showed an increase. In December, they are stable, he said.
