more symptoms and hospitalizations, but with less severity
This summer, COVID is causing more symptomatic cases overall and slightly higher hospitalization rates among vulnerable people than in the winter. less severity and less pneumonia.
Experts are urging not to downplay the importance of SARS-CoV-2, as the death rate of hospitalized patients remains twice that of influenza.
The latest data from the National Epidemiology Center of the Carlos III Institute of Health (ISCIII) indicate that rate of return Over the past week, it has increased slightly and reaches 4.6 cases per hundred thousand inhabitants, compared to a range of three cases in the winter season.
New Omicron lines
These numbers are within the normalized scale, but have caused an influx of patients into hospitals, mostly elderly and immunocompromised, since the endemic wave of COVID began in May due to the emergence of new omicron lineages and sublineages.
The most common symptoms observed are fever, feeling tired, general malaise, and loss of smell and taste.
According to the Spanish Society of Primary Care Physicians (Semergen), the most common symptoms seen in family medicine are feverish symptoms, fatigue and general malaise. There is also a loss of smell and taste, which in some cases is temporary and in others gradually recovers over the course of weeks.
Although slowly, incidence rate In recent weeks, it has continued to increase. The benchmark rate is 162 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. This fact shows experts that, along with the increase in the number of patients seeking primary health care, there is a high transmission of the virus.
Screening tests
Juan Gonzalez Castillocoordinator of the working group on emergency infections of the Spanish Society of Emergency Medicine (SEMES), noted the increase in hospitalizations in recent weeks. However, transmission of infections It is stabilized and is in a “plateau period”.
Mostly, elderly people with “comorbidities that decompensate” when infected with coronavirus were admitted, but with “several cases of pneumonia“So, according to González Castillo, only 2% of those hospitalized end up in intensive care units.
“We must not forget that the mortality rate from SARS-COV-2 is twice that of influenza,” Gonzalez said, a circumstance he attributes in part to the fact that the “common casuistry” of conducting detection tests has been lost. That’s why you see necessary Give them to older, vulnerable, or immunocompromised people with flu symptoms.
Mostly, elderly people with comorbidities were admitted, the decompensation of which occurs when infected with COVID, but with a small number of cases of pneumonia.
Juan Gonzalez Castillo
— SEMS
He level of care this summer, hospital emergency room visits and primary care consultations, both for COVID and other reasons, have generally been declining in major cities and increase in coastal areaswhere the summer population usually increases.
Thus, the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 may become another reason increase influx of patients into some medical centers in tourist attractions.