The secretary of the Department of Health (DS) of Puerto Rico, Carlos Mellado, denied this Monday that the island’s health system is on the verge of a collapse due to the increase in hospitalizations for cases of covid-19, which mark a new record of 750.
In a radio interview, Mellado affirmed that although admitted patients have increased -750 reported this Monday-, the percent of these patients is far from reaching the figure that was registered last June in terms of total bed occupancy in hospital institutions.
“Although it is true that we have 750 hospitalizations, and that they are going to increase, there is not a collapse of the hospitals,” said Mellado in an interview with the station WKAQ 580.
“I have been in constant communication with them (the hospitals). We have 54% of hospitalizations of the entire line (of diseases). In June we had 64% of all hospitalizations,” he explained.
The 750 hospitalized reported this Monday mark an increase of 18 registered (732) on Sunday, as detailed by the DS in its covid-19 statistics portal.
Of those 732 hospitalizations, 650 adult beds were occupied by patients with covid-19, while there were 3,072 hospitalized for other conditions, leaving 3,147 beds available.
Of that total, 83 were patients in intensive care units for covid-19 and 335 for other conditions, leaving 216 beds available in that area.
In turn, the DS did not report deaths from covid-19 this Monday, maintaining the figure at 3,373.