The record of infections makes it necessary to review the Health indicators

As scary as the record figures that the sixth wave of the pandemic, the health system is not able to count all the positives. The Madrid’s community days ago he recommended those who obtain a positive result in a test of auto diagnosis that they communicate it electronically but that they desist from going to the health centers to confirm the diagnosis. Although, the Madrid Ministry of Health has reported that these data are accounted for in regional statistics, but they are not turned over to the national surveillance system, so they do not appear in daily and accumulated cases notified by the Ministry of Health.

The alleged reason is that there is still no agreement on the criteria to be met by those positive to be counted homogeneously throughout the territory. But nevertheless, Catalonia, which on Monday also asked that the self-diagnosed do not go to primary care centers (CAP) or hospital emergencies, it does communicate the data to Health, as explained on Wednesday at a press conference.

Therefore, in the record of more than 100,000 new cases reported on Wednesday are not all infected, the positive self-diagnosis of Madrid is missing. And, as has been happening throughout the pandemic, the asymptomatic that no type of test is carried out, not knowing that they are or may be infected. And those with very mild symptoms and that they do not find tests in the pharmacies, due to the lack of stock, and they do not want to spend hours or days until they are treated in a health center, possibly because by then they are already perfectly well, given that the Omicron usually causes mild infections.

Different surveillance

In addition to all the above, every day there are more infected to count. Not only in Spain. In other countries too, record figures are being produced that they collapse the system. On Tuesday, for example, when 72,000 cases were reported in Spain, 104,000 were reported in France, 54,000 in Italy, 320,000 in the United States, 122,000 in the United Kingdom, and more than 9,000 in Australia.

For all this, the Interterritorial Council, which brings together the Ministry and the Health Councilors, stated on Wednesday that it may be appropriate to “make a review of indicators and an evaluation of the behavior of the new reality that may lead to a different surveillance situation, “according to regional sources. However, those gathered confirmed that this review may take time.

Likewise, the Council expressed its concern about the high number of tests that are carried out daily, which contribute to the saturation of the primary school, and the need to increase the indication of CRP or antigens was raised. exclusively people with symptoms, also bearing in mind that precautions must be focused on the vulnerable.

New strategies

This strategy is in line with what some specialists are beginning to claim, given the unmanageable volume (with current tools) of cases caused by the Omicron variant. For example, José Luis del Pozo, director of infectious diseases at the University of Navarra Clinic, has claimed in social networks that the tests be reserved for serious cases, that stop tracking (a task that was already deficient before the sixth wave and now even more so) and that primary care focuses on patients with symptoms and risk factors for developing a serious disease.

The situation of the #pandemic it has radically changed in a few days. This wave is different from the previous ones. The vaccination rate of the population is very high. There is sustained community transmission of the virus. The curve of cases and deaths is clearly out of step. I open thread:

– Jose Luis Del Pozo (@jdelpoleo) December 27, 2021

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All this is in line with the measures adopted in recent days to reduce quarantines to seven days for asymptomatic patients and that close contacts do not remain in isolation. The sixth wave is causing a new form of management and everything indicates that in the coming days there will also be changes in accounting and surveillance.