How nice it is to swab in Mar del Plata

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A sign reads “rapid testing center.” But reality is not deceiving. In Mar del Plata, in full season, in full swing of tourists, the waiting for a coronavirus diagnosis can be extended for four, five, six hours or more, even. Until a few days ago, there were very few who accepted such a delay but today, by force of habit and a pandemic that is not loosening, there is more tolerance, although no health post is still exempt from discussions and permanent moments of tension.

“Here they applaud when someone enters and does not leave for a while. Did you see when you go to the theater, the show doesn’t start and people applaud? Well, it’s the same. Maybe five minutes go by and they start clapping in line. You cannot stop because if you do not generate a certain tension but the truth is that you cannot do 60 tests per hour either. They don’t give you their hands. We are not machines or automatons; this is not a mechanical thing. Here there is always a human and physical contact, you have to give a minimum containment “, says Carlos Gómez, who covers the Ameghino room, one of the municipal spaces that offer tests for coronavirus.

Despite being located in a neighborhood far from the center and the traditionally busiest tourist spots, the demand exceeds that of the neighbor and extends for long kilometers: almost half of those who come are vacationers from Capital or other points of the city. Province. “We receive loads of tourists who are on vacation in Sierra de los Padres or in four campsites that are also in that area because this is the closest place they have to test themselves. We see a very varied population ”, confirms the health worker.

And the same happens in every diagnostic mouth. The mobile test trailers that until this Wednesday were operating in Playa Grande and in the Bristol skatepark – both moved following the overflow in the coastal sectors – were the most obvious witnesses of the massive turnout of tourists, with queues of up to seven or ten blocks. “The system is not collapsed but the little tolerance that exists complicates things. And it is understandable that there is tension because this is called a ‘rapid testing center’ and waiting four hours does not make sense either “, Gómez reasons, in an interview with Page 12.

In Ameghino’s case, the line surrounds the entire block. Although the attention begins at 8 o’clock, people come four or five hours before in order to secure a place. But this situation also brings operational complications because some cannot bear the wait in the summer sun and break down. So, a nurse has to come to take care of them, they have to be transferred to guard duty and thus more and more delays are added. “There are people who also come by bus with everything to the beach and want you to test it now because if you don’t, you will ruin their morning. But when you show him all the people there before, shouts out saying ‘then I’m going to the beach’ and continues on his way, something that has no reason to be”, Assures the nurse.

No bathrooms

But not only those who are going to be tested suffer: those who test also suffer. Gómez, who chairs the municipal section of the Trade Union Association of Health Professionals (Cicop), reveals that health personnel do not have water or toilets in these centers. “One of the most common symptoms of this covid-19 is diarrhea and we do not have a bathroom to offer people. It’s crazy, “he acknowledges, and adds:” We don’t have anything either. In our case, a zoom was improvised that was previously used for meetings and in other parts of the city, the only thing that was placed were cars or trailers where there are also lacking bathrooms ”.

“They followed a nurse who worked in Playa Grande to the bathroom because they only allowed her to go to a bathroom that was inside a business, across the street. Not even in the spas did they let her enter the bathroom “, she recalls, and points out:” This is not only regarding the anguish of the people who are waiting to be tested, but also regarding the mistreatment of a management that planned to take municipal professionals there without thinking regarding where they would have five minutes to rest or drink water”.

For the worker, the mayor’s administration Guillermo Montenegro It is responsible for the overflows caused by the coronavirus in Mar del Plata, which since Thursday reports more than 1600 daily cases and lives with almost 8 thousand active patients. “Between October and November the municipality began to dismantle many centers and remove everything that was there and that shows a lack of management because we all already knew the successful season that was coming. The city became an improvisation ”, he denounces, and states:“ Not only was human resources taken, but there are also few reagents to carry out the tests ”.

“In mobile trailers there is an inexplicable exposure. Because in front of a stained glass window it is exposed how a test is made to each one of those who pass. On one side is the person who does the administrative procedure and on the other is the nurse doing the swabbing, and that is seen by everyone. In Alfar it happened to us that people were watching how the testing was done. It is already terrible to have to go to a place to find out if you have a disease, but on top of that you have to endure that everyone sees how they stick a stick in your nose, if you sneeze or not, if you have any bleeding … that is gloomy and marks the lack of management and care ”, insists the man from Cicop.

The distancing was already

On paper, the following-beach premise fits perfectly with the logic of the pandemic: outdoor entertainment, as recommended by the Ministry of Health. The problems, however, become apparent later, with Massive events, without a chinstrap, without distancing, without a valid health pass, and without any other type of care or control. And this postcard is the one that, incredibly, is repeated every night in Playa Grande and its surroundings while, the next morning, people crowd in search of a test to find out if they are infected or not.

“Playa Grande and Bristol are full of people, people crowded together dancing. That is not being taken care of. Last season most of the people were asked to keep their bubble and a lot of people took the trouble to respect it but that has already been lost. Y It is not a question of accusing the one who is having fun, but what is evident is that care was left aside“Gómez warns, and reiterates:” If in an area where 5,000 people must enter, they end up putting 20,000 young people, then that tells us that there is a lack of care and prevention. It’s hard for us to understand ”.

Public order to Montenegro

Faced with this framework, the main health effectors of the Nation and Province requested this weekend the Intendant Montenegro to open the 33 Primary Health Care Centers (Caps) that depend on the municipality to decompress the high demand for tests in this section of the third wave.

“Montenegro has to fulfill its part at the level of primary health care in these times of emergency and that the residents of Mar del Plata and Batán deserve. This request is absolutely viable given that the municipality has sufficient human resources and most of the supplies necessary to carry out these practices are provided by the provincial Ministry of Health through the Sanitary Zone ”, it is pointed out, in the note that was made reach Page 12.

The public request was made by directors of the Interzonal Hospital Dr. Oscar Alende and the Maternal and Child Don Victorio Tetamanti together with those responsible for Sanitary Zone VIII, the National Institute of Epidemiology “Juan H Jara”, the UGL of Pami and Ioma, following meet with the head of the National Administration of Social Security (Anses), Fernanda Raverta.

Operation at risk

The accelerated growth of the pandemic not only affects health but also other key sectors of tourism, such as lifeguards. This week, one of the unions came to ask the workers in the sector to be equal to their positions, despite being close contacts of covid-19, so as not to jeopardize the continuity of the security operation on the beaches during this summer : is that of 700 headlines, there are already between 280 and 300 isolated. “The substitutes are almost all working. The system is on the verge of collapse ”, Diego Sánchez Cabezudo, from the Union of Union Lifeguards (UGA) tells this medium.

The leader demands the “immediate” application of the third doses and rapid tests for colleagues in those positive cases. “No one has yet determined whether the lifeguards, taking due precautions and working outdoors, are in close contact or not and, therefore, perhaps they are unduly isolating their colleagues and putting the operation at risk,” he says, and insists: ” In 10 days, if the protocols and close contact vision don’t change, everything collapses. It is impossible to continue thinking the same as last year. They were wrong and they don’t want to admit the mistake ”.

And where are the waiters?

The surveys this week made by the Union of Tourism, Hotel and Gastronomic Workers of the Argentine Republic (Uthgra) show that there is regarding 4 thousand isolated employees, which represents almost 30 percent of the sector’s staff. The number, naturally, has a strong impact on bars and restaurants and the owners have to turn to acquaintances or relatives to be able to cover all the substitutions.

“Either the owners themselves go to work or bring their son, daughter, relative or acquaintance they have. Sometimes things slow down and It is explained to the client that we may be a little more delayed than normal but the service ends up being carried out“, Says Hernán Szkrohal, head of the Gastronomic Chamber of Mar del Plata, and remarks:” We all understand that we have to live with the virus because there is no other. Today is not the alarm of the first or second wave; this is taken as a strong flu. It is true that nobody likes to have the flu for a week but there is no panic situation ”.

The businessman has expectations that the pandemic scenario will tend to normalize in the coming weeks and allow the full development of the season. “The priority is to be able to carry the season forward. Our sector is not collapsed and, in fact, the vast majority of the people who isolated themselves are already returning following the corresponding days have passed, so we understand that soon this has to be relatively solved ”, he confides.