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ARCHIVED - Murcian hospitals can amplify their capacity to cope with covid says regional president
The situation now is very different to that of the spring
On Friday the president of the Region of Murcia, Fernando López Miras, spoke to the regional assembly (the regional parliament), to discuss the measures imposed and give further details about the ways in which the regional health services are coping with the pandemic.
Although the pressure is starting to build, and as of yesterday the regional health authority was coping well, in spite of the fact that the number of covid hospitalisations is at a record high both on the covid wards and in intensive care, the health authorities are under no illusions that the Region of Murcia is experiencing a totally different situation to that of the first wave of the pandemic.
In the spring, the numbers of cases in the region were absolutely minimal; at the peak of the lockdown there were consistently under a thousand active cases in the region; we are currently hovering around 10,000 active cases a day. Yesterday 804 new cases were diagnosed in one day, more than in the whole of April or May.
In the spring the number of patients in hospital under 120 and the number in intensive care between 20 and 50 was consistently maintained; yesterday 510 patients were hospitalised, with 89 in intensive care, both the highest figures yet recorded.
This time around, the Murcia region is consistently ranking in the middle of the 17 regions of Spain for the highest numbers of active cases, rather than being the region with the lowest number of cases, as it was consistently though the first wave; that position is now occupied by the neighbouring Region of Valencia which has less than half of the number of cases per 100,000 of population. (Yesterday Murcia had a 14 day accumulated incidence rate of 448 per 100,000 as opposed to 218 in the Valencia region).
So the situation, and therefore the risk to members of the public, is considerably higher at the moment than it has been at any previous time.
The regional premier said today that the health service in Murcia can cope with the current situation and has a contingency plan in place to expand the number of beds available for covid care;
The health service could, he said, amplify the number of beds available by 500 within a 24 hour period should it become necessary and triple the intensive care capacity.
This will be done by re-allocating beds normally used for surgical interventions and turning them over for covid use (although logically this will result in the cancellation of non-urgent operations) and other patient recovery areas could also be used for intensive care. The plan also provides for the opening of a semi-critical ward in the Santa María del Rosell hospital in Cartagena, which would cost the region 800,000 euros as an additional 54 professionals would be required to man it.
He also inisted that the regional health service had purchased sufficient sanitary materials to last it until March and had enough masks and gloves for staff until September next year.
The region also now has 892 respirators and the regional president maintained that although “hard times lie ahead”, the region is prepared and ready to cope with increased numbers of covid cases.
The order prohibiting non-essential movement between municipalities came into effect at midnight last night and will last for 2 weeks. Click here for further information.