In the context of the health crisis facing the world and Chile, Dr. Miguel O’Ryan G. Professor at the University of Chile, Pediatrician and researcher at the Millennium Institute in Immunology and Immunotherapy and Scientific Committee of the World Society of Infectology (WSPID) participated in the ACCDIS seminar cycle, to explain about the pandemic in the country, its evolution and contributions from the COVID-19 Advisory Council.

To kick-start, Dr. Miguel explained the main public health actions carried out in the country, Highlighting "within the key inputs that positively differentiate us between Latin American countries, there is the strengthening of the national network of laboratories and the healthcare network", important factors that helped us anticipate, considering that health system saturation was the main problem of many countries.

With regard to the national network of laboratories, the professor informed that we have 73 institutions throughout Chile, which are divided into 28 hospitals, 19 universities and 26 private campuses, who have the ability to test for COVID-19 diagnostic confirmation, "to date, 17,515 PCR tests are done daily," said Miguel O'Ryan..

In terms of strengthening the care network, Chile carried out several actions to face the emergency "in February there was talk of the availability of 800 mechanical ventilators, which they weren't going to give enough to meet the needs, for this reason, strategy to acquire these elements began, which have gradually come into the country", commented on the doctor. On the other hand, the capacity of hospital beds was also increased from 37.000 to 41,532, a $220 fund was created.000 millions to finance the purchase of inputs and equipment, epidemiological and entry points at the start of the pandemic were initiated and quarantine measures and health cordons have been implemented in most regions of the country, the doctor reported.

During the seminar the teacher also referred to the epidemiological record that is made annually at the Institute of Public Health on the surveillance of respiratory viruses, showing to date, increased presence of coronavirus and little development of other viruses.

With regard to the effectiveness of quarantines, the researcher showed two charts of the city of Chillán and Osorno, ensuring "quarantine is the most relevant public health measure we have to control the increase in positive cases in each geographic area", the report has seen a significant decrease in new positive cases since quarantine was applied.

With regard to your position as a pediatrician, the doctor took the opportunity to report on the report of positive cases in children, according to the latest report of the Chilean Pediatric Society until May 16: pediatric patients with COVID-19 upcPA graduates (pediatric critical patients) there have been 42 in total, however to date 8 children are hospitalized in UPCP and 6 patients have needed respiratory support.

To finish, the member of the Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Health, Chile's strategy is fundamentally based on testing, traceability of cases, significant increase in critical beds and selective quarantines, but unfortunately the work doesn't finish yet, the expert noted that within the outstanding aspects is incorporating more staff to maximize the ability to trace cases, bringing together the scientific community in all necessary aspects and optimizing the communication strategy "it is necessary to generate trust and a balance between timely and accurate information" and finally, an exit strategy from the pandemic must be devised for the coming months.

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