Area doctors are exhausted from crisis, isolation from families; Critical condition patients number holds steady; Pool reopens; Buses to Azogues

Jul 29, 2020 | 27 comments

Martes, 28/7/2020

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –
Más de nada.

Otras cosas –

Titular – Médicos, agotados (Doctors, exhausted) – Front line doctors and nurses have been working for 135 days with long hours on call, a constant stream of patients, and isolation from their families, all of it taking a physical and mental toll and leaving them more vulnerable to the virus. Nationally, about 10% of them have caught the virus and some have died. They emphasize that the best way to help them is to avoid massive infections to stop the wave of cases in Cuenca.

The number of patients in critical condition in Cuenca has not lessened. Yesterday there were 54 patients and 51 ventilators. The number of deaths in hospitals has increased with 12 in the last week, bringing the total in the city to 139. ECU-911 received calls to remove 299 bodies which also included deaths from causes other than Covid. Julio Molina, Zone director of the MSP said they are working on adding personnel to relieve doctors and nurses and to attend to the ICU beds which have been full for more than 15 days.

Authorities pick up a body last week.

Fernando Arias, a board member of the Colegio de Médicos del Azuay (Azuay College of Physicians), pointed to the lack of responsibility by the citizenry as the cause of the increased cases. He said that the parties for Mothers’ Day in mayo, for Fathers’ Day in junio, and graduations in julio accelerated the spread of the virus.

Virtual summer camps – About 700 kids have signed up for Mis Vaccaciones en Acción, offered by Acción Social, of the city. The classes are on Zoom and include sports, arts, English and sign language which was popular, especially among youth. <They’re hoping to learn all the bad words so they can use them since almost no one will know what they’re saying.> There are classes in puppetry, bailoterapia, circus arts <which seem as if they should fall into the “do not do this at home” category of activities along with building and firing rockets>, health, gardening, recycling, music, crafts, and virtual tours. A second camp is scheduled for the first 15 days in agosto. Register at the Facebook pages of Desarrollo Social, Acción Social, and the Dirección de Cultura. There are chats for attendees to get into the classes, after which campers will get links to enter. Hours are from 10-11:00 and 17-18:00.

Carnés de discapacidad fraudulentos – The audit by the Ministerio de Salud into fraudulently issued handicapped cards has found 2,454 fraudulent cards and 22 doctors against whom administrative summaries (something prior to getting fired?) and legal proceedings have been started. Daniel Salcedo, his brother Noe and 3 friends who were involved in selling overpriced medical supplies to hospitals in Guayaquil also have evidence against them that they got fraudulent handicapped ID cards. These cards have gone to judges, assembly members, officials and even professional athletes.

1,650 people have been notified of irregularities in their documentation. If they can’t justify their documents, the cancellation process for the cards will start. Another 1,140 cards are being directly cancelled after illegalities were found. Investigators found missing documents, percentages assigned to physical impairment that bore no relationship to the medical exams or certificates, and use of the same supporting paperwork for more than one person where only the patients’ names and cedula numbers were changed. Some documents to support the disability were issued by officials not accredited for recognizing disabilities and from doctors out of their fields of specialty.

Wind farm project – The proyecto eolico in Huascachaca, San Sebastián Yuloc parish, Saraguro cantón, Loja province, is 49% complete. Electro Generadora del Austro (Elecaustro) is in charge of the project which will generate 50 megawatts. It was financed by the Banco del Estado (BCE) for $54 million. Work includes widening and improving 6.16 km. of access road from the vía Girón-Pasaje to the community of Uchicay. Este domingo, the Siemens transformer of 40/50 MVA of 34.5/138 kV will be installed.

Food vendors return to the plaza San Francisco – <just like the swallows to San Juan Capistrano> The 8 prepared food vendors who were evicted in noviembre 2019 will return to their spaces after they won a law suit. <So you can get your ceviche again.>

Bicentennial article – The article (on p. 5A of the print edition) is about some Cuencana medical history. There was the Hospital Betlemita which was founded in 1747 and functioned until 1822; the Hospital Real de la Caridad, located where the ex-Escuela Central is; the Hospital de San Blas which started operating when the political system changed from a monarchy to a republic; and the hospital San Vicente de Paúl and the hospital Vicente Corral Moscoso. For the future, the U. of Cuenca received a $200 million crédito no reembolsable (non-repayable credit – sounds like a grant to me) from the Fundación Bridgin to build a new hospital on Huayna Cápac where the old IESS hospital is.

Cuenca-Azogues bus service resumes – The first bus to run in 4 months left the terminal terrestre in Azogues at 10:45 ayer destined for the terminal terrestre in Cuenca. The buses will run with a 15 minute frequency at 50% capacity or 20 passengers. Service will run from 5:40 to 19:00 and be non-stop. Passengers will have their temperatures taken, and pass through a disinfection point. Masks are required <and resistance is futile – a lot of you should recognize where that comes from>.

Canned beer – Latitud Cero will have a new image. Latitud Cero, 593 and La Paz brands will be available in cans starting in agosto. Latitud Cero was started in 2014 with the vision of bringing a premium beer in different styles and packaging. The plant has a 11,000 hectolitro capacity and packages in bottles, cans and barriles (barrels/kegs). The plant will also start exporting to markets such as Puerto Rico, the US, and Perú in agosto.

Deportes –

Pool reopened – The piscina Olímpica de El Batan reopened el viernes anterior. The pool had been closed since octubre/2019 for infrastructure maintenance, specifically to change a medium tension electrical cable. Gustavo Enderica, the administrator of the FDA (Federación Deportiva del Azuay) said there was a meeting ayer to talk about pool hours, scheduling of the athletes and the health protocols. He said there are studies that showed no risks of getting infected in the water so the protocols will be for when swimmers are out of the water.

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne

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