TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS.- The covid-19 bitter the Christmas of many Hondurans in 2022, but for this beginning of the year, in January, it no longer represents a risk since cases have decreased nationwide.
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According to official data from the Surveillance Unit of the Health Secretary (Sesal), cases have dropped by 10% in the last seven days.
“This week the cases have decreased by 10%, the people who are infected are between 20 and 50 years old,” said Pamela Olivera, coordinator of the Sesal Covid-19 Epidemiological Unit.
He added that there are 667 incidents and 10 deaths so far this 2023. Three of the deceased correspond to the El Paraíso region, two were from Francisco Morazán and the rest from Cortés, Atlántida and Ocotepeque, each one.
This decrease in cases is due to the fact that people have been vaccinated against the virus and also because the majority of Hondurans in the main cities have already been infected, experts say.
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Even triages are reporting a low incidence. EL HERALDO visited the containment centers in the capital, where they report a positivity of 8%, which before was around 49% in the midst of a wave of infections.
These points are registering between 5 to 10 people positive for the disease daily, previously around 30 cases were confirmed. For the infectologist Tito Alvarado, the incidences have dropped because the majority of the population has already been infected.
“People now recover quickly from covid-19 and most of them were infected in December,” he said. He added that this behavior reflects that the population is already trained for these outbreaks of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
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Reina Durón, director of the Unitec Covid-19 Observatory, stated that the trend indicates that the world would already be entering the endemic of this virus.
Vaccines
The expert assured that Honduras should also have the new vaccines, such as being bivalent (to create antibodies against two different covid-19 viruses) and only apply it to a certain vulnerable population.
“You have to bring it, but focus on administering it to vulnerable groups: the elderly, the chronically ill, people who have diseases in their immune system,” he added.
For their part, Honduran doctors also recommend that the health authorities purchase the immunizer, as it will benefit the population.
However, the arrival of 400,000 doses of the bivalent vaccine in Honduras, aimed at adults, is expected between February and March, according to the Expanded Immunization Program (PAI).
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Dr. María Elena Guevara, who a few days ago served as director of the EPI, announced that the arrival of the updated vaccine against the virus was expected between February and March. The Pfizer brand biological protects against the original strain of the virus and the new ones. omicron subvariants.
The health authorities and medical experts call on the Honduran population not to let their guard down so that there is no new outbreak of cases due to this viral disease.
They recommend that Hondurans maintain biosecurity measures, mainly that they go to the vaccination points to start the full scheme (two doses) or complete it with booster doses.
According to the Sesal data, currently in this 2023, women 20 to 50 years of age are most affected by this virus.
In deaths it is the opposite, since the male sex is the most affected, since seven of the 10 deaths correspond to them. The most affected regions are the metropolitan areas of Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, as well as the Atlántida sector.
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