Health figures reach 50 thousand deaths attributed to the Corona virus in 21 months of the pandemic

On November 17, 2019, the world’s first case of Covid-19 virus was recorded. In just over two years, all over the world, 280,555,284 people have been infected and 5,403,384 have died from the virusAccording to data from Johns Hopkins University.

In Chile, on March 3, 2020, the Ministry of Health investigated the first infection. Exactly a week later, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic. So far, 21 months after this milestone, 1,801,033 people have been infected, 39,013 patients have died of the virus, while another 10,988 deaths have been configured – without laboratory confirmation – as probable Covid-19 deaths. this means? During the health crisis – 2020 and 2021 – there were 50,001 deaths attributed to coronavirus in the country.

In this sense, Sebastian Ugarte, Head of the Critical Patient Unit at Clinica Endesa asserts, “It is an important number that reflects the severity of the disease. Although in many cases it presents as an influenza-like condition, with general discomfort, it develops in other patients with respiratory failure and with damage to various organs and complications that endanger life.”

In 2020 there was 22.218 Deaths from Covid-19. But this year, despite the vaccinations, there is more: 27,783. The explanation for this increase, according to specialists, lies in the mutation of the virus.

“In 2021 we were more prepared, however, from year to year there were changes in the dominant variables. In 2020 there was the initial variant and then the European variant. In 2021 we have more delta and gamma presence. Which is more aggressive. There was also a more serious commitment from the elderly,” Ugarte explains.

As of early October, the average cumulative confirmed and probable deaths from Covid-19 were about 1,370 per million inhabitants in OECD countries. In Chile, on the same date, they reached 3,000 per million people, nearly twice the agency average.

In addition, the cumulative deaths that occurred between March 2020 and January 2021 due to MERS-CoV, confirmed or suspected, represent 19.26% of all deaths in the country.

The deaths caused by the virus have had an impact in different regions. From demographic indicators to social attitudes. “The number of deaths is always very bad news, in terms of the number of families who have experienced the loss of a loved one and orphans being born,” says Claudio Castillo, a public health academic in Osach.

Castillo explains that it is still too early to make a deep analysis of the impact that deaths from Covid-19 will have. But there are already some visible changes: “The effects we are seeing now, in the short term, They are a decrease in the birth rate, and an increase in deaths from direct as well as indirect causes; That is, the people who, as a result of the epidemic, were not treated in time.”

In fact, according to the latest OECD data, Chile It occupies one of the worst places in the ranking in terms of excess mortality; That is, the additional deaths that have occurred in the country since the arrival of Covid-19, compared to the average recorded in the past five years and the deaths that would have been expected, under normal conditions, for this period.

Thus, looking at the data up to June, the report estimated an increase in deaths in the country by 40,862 cases, of which 33,249 cases are directly attributable to the Corona virus. This means that deaths increased by 25%, It placed Chile with the third highest death rate linked to the epidemic, after Mexico (54.7%) and Colombia (37.8%).

Experts point to a multifactorial phenomenon, linked to comorbidities, social vulnerabilities, risk factors and the prioritization of Covid-19 cases in the health system. In the case of obesity, for example, which has been shown to be an exacerbating factor in cases of coronavirus infection, 74% of adults in Chile suffer from it.

Gabriel Cavada, an epidemiologist and academic at the School of Public Health at the University of Chile, agrees that a change is already occurring in demographic indicators: “The average life expectancy of men and women in Chile is about 82 years. When you look at the average age of people who die from Covid-19, that number comes close to 10 years. What the pandemic has done is take away an average of eight to ten years per person.”

Although initial reports show that Omicron appears, so far, to be more transmissible but less lethal than other variants, It will have an impact on the hospital network by having a higher percentage of infected people, and therefore of cases arriving in the intensive care unit.

“When cases go up, deaths go up, that’s what the curves indicate. That’s why it’s worrying to underestimate the increase in infections because, unfortunately, we see the impact on deaths later. If we don’t worry about cases and let them go up, finally after weeks we’ll see an uptick. in mortality. This is something you have to be aware of,” Dice Ernesto Laval, data visualization specialist.

For this reason, the emergence of a new omicron variant – it is more transmissible than Delta experts, who confirmed that there may be an increase in cases in February. In addition, due to its high rate of transmission, it can have consequences for health systems.

In this sense, Ximena Aguilera, director of the UDD Center for Health Epidemiology and Policy, notes that “There could be a rebound in deaths, hopefully not too big, but it’s hard to predict at this time. As a country, we’re on the decline, but with the crowds at the end of December, plus the holidays, and more people who’ve traveled, there’s the potential for it to happen.” A rebound in cases is now in January, people are talking about February, but it might be now. These outbreaks are accompanied by a curve for hospitalization and death, although it may be lower than previous ones, given the good vaccination coverage.”