They demand to masify PCR tests to isolate coronavirus-infected
The Senate table, headed by its president Adriana Muñoz (Ppd) and Vice President Rabindranath Quinteros (Ps), together with Senators Guido Girardi (Ppd) and Carolina Goic (Dc), met on Thursday with experts and epidemiologists to discuss the effects and measures that have been taken to address the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19).
The meeting was attended by Ximena Paz Aguilera de la U. development; Maria Teresa Valenzuela, U. of the Andes; Jeannette Debanch, Chilean Society of Epidemiology; Marcela Ferrés, Catterina Ferrecio and Gonzalo Valdivia, U. ACDDiS; Jeannette Vega, UC Christus and Health Network; Izkia Siches, president of the Medical College and Rafael Araos, Ministry of health (Minsal).
In the opportunity, attendees raised that the priority is to urgently implement reviews (Pcr) free to detect and isolate coVID-19 infected. They also reported gross negligence as there would be teams that can perform 8,000 PCRs a day and are not being employed.
In this respect, Senator Girardi noted that "we urgently agreed to urgently call for a meeting of the President of the Senate, Adriana Muñoz, with President Sebastián Piñera, to express our concern because they are not listening to experts on the subject".
The parliamentarian added that "scientists have a consensual conviction that Chile has a window of opportunity to stop this pandemic, because cases are still clustered in groups and sectors. The strategy should be the same as South Korea: diagnostics and tests to all those with breathing tables and fevers to recognize the infected, isolate them and cut the chain of contagion".
In addition, stated that "that's not being done. We don't know how many tests a day are done (…) UC only makes 40 years; the U of Chile, 30, some private ones can do more, but South Korea was doing 15,000 a day and we're far from that. Experts say there are two teams at Lucio Córdova hospital that can do 8,000 tests and are not yet implemented".
Senator PPD noted that "UC informed Minsal yesterday that they can increase the exams from 40 to 400 and still have no response. We find it very negligent that at this stage of containment the necessary PCRs are not made to prevent the spread of the virus. It's what Italy didn't do and today they have 400 dead a day. We must follow the successful models, not the losers".
In both, the president of the Medical College, Izkia Siches, argued that "recently Dr. Rafael Araos (Minsal) informed us that most of the cases we have are still confined to certain crowding groups. In other words, there is no complete dissemination within society, so we have the challenge of identifying them, isolate and contain them before they spread".
"We believe that the President should take the lead, just as the first representatives of other countries have done. Dialogue required, humility to listen to experts and readiness to mend misguided directions", Added Siches.
At last, Senator Carolina Goic said that "we want to ask the President and the Minister of Health to have the humility to recognize that they should harness the capacity of the experts and take action that may seem exaggerated today, but tomorrow we can regret not doing it".