The increase in the circulation of the coronavirus throughout the country is also reflected in La Plata and specifically in the city’s pharmacies, where in recent days there has been a notorious lack of self-tests, which serve to decompress the public health system and instantly know if a person is infected or not.
That shortage was especially felt on the first business day of the year. Indeed, this Monday, January 3, it was a very difficult mission to find any of the brands that work with this input. The answer in almost all the platenses pharmacies was the same: “It is missing.”
Given the lack of accessible statistics regarding the evolution of the COVID-19 curve in each district, the data that emerges from pharmacies allows us to infer that the increase in cases in the Buenos Aires capital follows the same growing rhythm as in the entire country.
The self-test is a key element so that people who are not among the groups cared for in public centers, such as hospitals and health rooms, can know if they are infected. According to the provisions of the Federal Health Council (COFESA), only some people can access the test for free in public health centers across the country. The rest of the suspected patients can resort to the self-test that is sold in pharmacies.
In this sense, from the body that brings together all the country’s ministries of health that can be swabbed for free the following groups: people over 50 years of age or those with risk conditions; health personnel or long-stay institutions (such as nursing homes); and those that require hospitalization due to acute respiratory disease, is also applied in all provinces.
Although there are no global figures, the president of the College of Pharmacists of La Plata, Alejandra Gomezrecognized 0221.com.ar that “the demand is higher these days”, but in any case, he clarified that many pharmacies have stock”. However, he indicated that they may run out momentarily “but new ones are constantly entering”.
The professional marked the month of December as the point at which the demand for self-tests grew again. “During September, October and November, some were occasionally sold,” he recalled, “but since December it was notorious,” said Gómez and indicated that the level of positivity is also high.
This Tuesday, the national director of Epidemiology and Strategic Information, Analia Rearteassured that there is a significant circulation of coronavirus in the country in a context in which there is also a marked increase in cases of other respiratory viruses.
“Today we are with a very, very high circulation of COVID-19. Throughout this year we had viral circulation, we started 2022 with a very high circulation of Covid, SARS-CoV-2, concomitantly with influenza, which was a strange thing because influenza did not It usually circulates in summer”said the official.
