The Secretary of the Department of Health of Puerto Rico, Carlos Mellado López, today called on the public to be prudent and to follow the prevention protocols against COVID-19 to prevent contagion.
The so-called happens at times when the percentage of positivity in molecular tests reaches 13.84 percent, placing Puerto Rico at a high level of transmission for the past seven consecutive days.
“To say that Puerto Rico ranks first in the highest positivity rate in the US is incorrect. However, we are at a high level of community transmission which leads us to make adjustments as we have been doing to protect life. and slow down the contagions.Faced with this result, we are increasing the number of molecular tests throughout the island, in order to identify the carrier of the virus and to obtain an updated epidemiological photo.But the most important thing is that the public help us stop the virus, “Mellado Lopez said in written statements.
According to statistics from the Department of Health, the number of molecular tests performed on the island from March to date totals 1,928,745. Of which, 107,884 tests tested positive for viruses.
As he explained, positivity measures the percentage of positive tests out of the total number of tests performed in a seven-day period. The highest positivity rate during the pandemic occurred between November and December 2020, a period in which more than 10,000 daily tests were performed daily.
“We have seen that the percentage of positive cases has increased. Particularly in young people and adults under the age of 40, we are concerned with implementing strategies such as we have been doing to prevent infections and detect positive cases in time. We keep monitoring the data and we will be synchronizing it with the Federal Department of Health and the CDC so that they have the most accurate date possible, ”the official pointed out.