Puerto Rico woke up this Friday with 38 new deaths from COVID-19 reported by the Health Department in your preliminary report. A figure like this had never been reported since the emergency began on the island.
With this number, the total accumulated in this line increased to 3,631.
The number of reported deaths does not mean that they all occurred on the same day.
With these fatalities, the number of deaths that have been reported on the island so far in January rose to 312 as a result of the recent wave of infections caused by the omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The island is currently averaging 15 deaths per day.
The agency detailed through a tweet that 11 of the deceased were not vaccinated, 21 were only vaccinated with two doses, and six had received their booster dose. However, the agency stated that Victims of the virus suffered from chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cancer, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, dementia/Alzheimer’s, and morbid obesity.
The ages of the deceased fluctuate between 41 to 100 years.
Regarding fatalities by vaccination status, the Secretary of Health, Carlos Mellado, has clarified on several occasions that the number of deaths is higher in people vaccinated with two doses than in those not vaccinated because the majority of the population is inoculated, so “proportionally, the number will be higher.”
Dr. Carmen Zorrilla echoed, this morning, Mellado’s expressions, emphasizing that “this is a matter of numbers.”
“To the extent that more people are vaccinated in Puerto Rico as a whole, because of the people who die, they will be people vaccinated simply because of the numbers of people vaccinated. Now, when you look at the possibility of infection, the possibility of illness and the possibility of mortality, it is higher in unvaccinated people, partially vaccinated people and lower in people with all three doses,” he said in a radio interview (RadioIsla 1320).
On the other hand, Health reported that total hospitalizations for the virus dropped to 839, figure broken down into 786 who are adult patients and 53 pediatric.
The agency reported that 100 adults and a minor are connected to an artificial respirator.
While the preliminary positivity rate dropped to 27.74%, which means that 27 out of 100 tests for the SARS-CoV-2 virus are positive. A percentage close to 27 points in the positivity rate had not been registered since last December 26, according to the Health BioPortal.
The demographics of deaths, breakdown of hospitalizations, positivity rate and average positive cases will be expanded at noon, when Health publishes its full report on the incidence of the virus.
stay connected to elnuevodia.com for the expansion of this story.