2023-05-14 23:00:17
- During the pandemic, the IMSS attended to 6 million 937 thousand 610 unconfirmed suspected cases and 3 million 811 thousand 816 positives.
- Of all the infected people, 3 million 434 thousand 195 were managed on an outpatient basis and 377 thousand 621 required hospitalization.
- The declaration of health emergency in Mexico was in force from March 23, 2020 to May 9, 2023.
After the lifting of the health emergency due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the government of Mexico in recent days, the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) reported that 10 million 749 thousand 426 cases of viral respiratory disease were attended. Of that figure, 6,937,610 corresponded to unconfirmed suspected cases and 3,811,816 were positive for the coronavirus.
The head of the Epidemiological Surveillance Coordination, Dr. Xochitl Refugio Romero Guerreroreported that from February 1, 2020 to May 5, 2023, of the confirmed cases of COVID-19 by PCR, Rapid Antigen Test, Epidemiological Association or Ruling, 3 million 434 thousand 195 were managed on an outpatient basis and 377 thousand 621 required hospitalization, in addition 3 million 671 thousand 677 occurred in beneficiaries and 140 thousand 139 in people without social security.
He stressed that the IMSS in this health emergency demonstrated great leadershipits response capacity, coordination and inter- and intra-institutional support to have the necessary resources in order to care for the population both on an outpatient and hospital basis.
Lessons learned by the IMSS
Dr. Romero Guerrero said that within this health emergency the main lessons learned are be prepared and coordinated in an intersectoral manner, follow the monitoring of morbid processes that occur at the international and national levels, have a surveillance system to detect possible threats in a timely manner and prepare to face them.
He explained that the Declaration of end of the health emergency due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus released by the WHO and the federal government implies that the IMSS gives continuity to all containment, prevention and care activities for cases that occur but in an endemic way, in coordination with the Ministry of Health, as head of the sector, and aligned with international policies , intra-institutional and sectoral.
The Coordinator of Epidemiological Surveillance of Social Security stated that at Being declared an endemic disease of COVID-19 means that it will be a disease that will be seen permanently, a phenomenon similar to influenza that became a seasonal problem.
“Not because the international emergency is over, we should not take care of ourselves, on the contrary, we must maintain the preventive measures that we have implemented up to now: the use of face masks inside closed places and conglomerates continues to be of great importance, especially for the most vulnerable population such as people who have chronic-degenerative diseases, pregnant women, immunocompromised people, etc.
He stressed that health services must continue active epidemiological surveillance to detect threats and act in a timely manner.
“The presence or possible presence of future threats, such as the SARS-CoV-2 virus, influenza, requires the Institute to have an epidemiological surveillance and monitoring system as close as possible to what it would be in real time.”
Dr. Xochitl Romero indicated that currently the IMSS has the infrastructure and human resources and sufficient information to monitor it in real timeIn addition, the Epidemiological Surveillance Coordination, with the support of the Directorates of Medical Benefits and Technological Innovation and Development, is working on a Health Intelligence Center that will allow better monitoring of conditions subject to epidemiological surveillance and those that appear unexpectedly.
“Our interaction with national and international organizations, our intersectoral interaction with the Ministry of Health and with other agencies, give us the possibility of detecting future threats in a timely manner. We are in the field of health but in reality we are part of a whole where we have to maintain close coordination with national and international policies, and close surveillance as well”.
He said that in the presence of an epidemiological threat, as COVID-19 was at the time, it implies the organized participation of the health sector and the active contribution of the population, where another fundamental aspect must be vaccination, an aspect where the The federal government made a great effort by being one of the first countries to make progress on the issue of immunization, which made it possible to contain the disease as well as the lethality.
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