AM has increase in cases of Covid-19 with Manaus experiencing fourth wave and ‘silent flu’, experts warn

Experts warn that the capital is experiencing the fourth wave of the pandemic and a "silent flu" (Ricardo Oliveira/AMAZON AGENCY)

June 30, 2022

15:06

Bruno Pacheco – from Amazon Agency

MANAUS – The Amazon has again had a significant increase in cases of Covid-19. According to data from the Health Surveillance Foundation of Amazonas – Dr. Rosemary Costa Pinto (FVS-RCP), the state has recorded a growth in the daily average of cases of the disease, with expressive numbers, especially in Manaus. Moreover, experts warn that the capital is living the fourth wave of the pandemic and a “silent flu”, with more and more patients testing positive for the virus.

The scientist and epidemiologist Jesem Orellana, from Fiocruz Amazon, pointed out that the fourth wave of the pandemic already affects the capital of Amazonas and the cases of the virus should intensify, mainly, because of big events, such as the traditional festivities of São João and the Folkloric Festival of Parintins. Moreover, the specialist says that the tendency of increase in the cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), especially by Covid-19, in Manaus, is not from today, but from a few weeks ago.

“The fact that we are seeing this curve of increase in severe cases in the fourth wave proves that we were already having thousands of cases in the community for a longer time and they were simply going blank in the official statistics, which characterizes a silent or hidden epidemic, as we saw at the turn of 2021 to 2022, when suddenly the hospitalizations began to increase. The difference now, in the middle of the fourth wave, is that the authorities are no longer interested in mass testing and are once again focusing, mistakenly, on the hospital, from where it is impossible to control the epidemic, because the viral spread occurs in the community or outside the hospital”, he said.

Alert

On Wednesday, 29, the Amazonas State Department of Health (SES-AM) and the FVS-RCP issued a risk communication alerting about the increase in the daily average of Covid-19 cases in the state. The document warns that the growth was driven by Manaus, whose number of cases went from 18 to 103 new cases per day. In the countryside, the increase in the daily average was from 8 to 20 daily cases. The state capital has 62% of the cases registered in the last two months.

Last Friday, 24, an FVS-RCP bulletin made an analysis between June 10th and 23rd of this year and showed that the daily average of Covid-19 cases, in Amazonas, had gone from 21 to 70 in the period of 14 days. In Manaus, the daily average had risen from 12 to 55. In the interior of the state, on the other hand, the number had risen from 9 to 15 cases. In all, there were 732 new confirmed cases in the time interval analyzed, with one death from the disease recorded on June 12.

“This is an expected increase, given the constant evolution of the new coronavirus, in particular, the most contagious mutations (descendants of the Ômicron variant) and the wide and early relaxations fostered by health authorities and the population as a whole, in addition to the huge number of people still unvaccinated or with incomplete scheme, especially, the booster doses, so important in times of Ômicron. However, these numbers of new cases must be largely underreported or do not reflect the real strength of the viral circulation in the state of Amazonas”, Jesem Orellana emphasized.

To the infectious disease physician Nelson Barbosa, the numbers light up a warning. To AMAZON AGENCY, the health professional, who acted in the front line in the first and second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, in Amazonas, highlights that the state needs to re-impose the mandatory use of protective masks to prevent the scenario from becoming worrisome.

“The health authorities have to admit that the pandemic is not over, that the virus is still circulating, that we have to go back to wearing masks to avoid that this situation becomes worrisome and we can live all that we lived: the lockdown and the lack of beds in hospitals. We have to anticipate and be alert, because we had the experience of the first and second wave”, highlighted Barbosa.

The epidemiologist Jesem Orellana also defended to AMAZON AGENCY that Amazonas should have imposed the mandatory use of masks in closed environments, weeks ago, as in public transportation, shopping malls and commerce in general, besides schools, universities, fairs, markets or closed environments with high potential of contagion. “Once again, Amazonas is setting a bad example in the pandemic. On one hand, it anticipated to recommend the suspension of the use of masks in closed environments in 2022, and, on the other hand, it delays the resumption of the recommendation of the use of masks in closed environments, despite the promise of the current health secretary. This proves the insistent disinterest of the State of Amazonas in the effective control of the epidemic, since the pattern is the same, late, ineffective, and anchored in the certainty of impunity”, lamented Orellana.

Reflexes

According to FVS-RCP, the increase in cases did not represent significant reflections in hospitalizations and deaths, because the number of people admitted to Intensive Care Units (ICU) with the virus is low, one of the lowest rates of hospitalizations for the disease since the beginning of the pandemic. On Tuesday 28th, the folder registered only three patients hospitalized in ICU and in the public network.

For the director-president of FVS-RCP, this reduced number of severe cases of the disease is due to the vaccination against Covid-19. “It is necessary that everyone remains alert and not relax, because it is the vaccine that provides the non-worsening of cases”, said Tatyana Amorim.

Reduced number of severe cases of the disease is due to vaccination against Covid-19, says FVS (Ricardo Oliveira/AMAZON AGENCY)

On June 9, the InfoGripe Bulletin from Fiocruz pointed out that the cases of Covid-19, in Brazil, corresponded to 69% of the occurrences of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), in the last four weeks before the publication of the research. According to the document, the trend is for an increase in cases.

“At the national level, there is a clear scenario of growth in the number of weekly cases of SARS associated with Covid-19 in all age groups of the adult population. For SARS occurrences in the general population, the estimate shows 39.5% growth in the moving average of weekly cases in the comparison between the first and last week of May. In the adult population, from 18 years old on, the estimate is that this growth has been 88.7%”, says an excerpt from the study.

In the age group from 0 to 4 years old, the cases are still fundamentally associated to the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), although the presence of Covid-19, rhinovirus and metapneumovirus is also observed, according to researcher Marcelo Gomes, coordinator of InfoGripe.

“It is essential that the population resumes certain simple and effective measures such as the use of masks, especially in public transport, whether collective or individual – such as buses, trains, subways, ferries, cabs, and apps. And those who have not yet taken the booster dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, must take it. Vaccination is simply fundamental”, warned Marcelo Gomes.