The change to the e-SUS Notifica affected the confirmation of new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Brazil for a week. In at least two states, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, state secretariats have reported technical difficulties in accessing the system and disclosing the daily balance sheet.
As a result, the number of new cases reported per day has decreased, raising the moving average to rates similar to those at the start of the pandemic, when testing capacity was still very low.
The new version of e-SUS Notifica was released on September 8, one day before the issue started. The National Council of Health Ministers (Kunas) confirmed to TV Globo, Tuesday (14) afternoon, that “some states had problems accessing the e-SUS Notifica API, due to instability”, but that “the problems have been resolved”. “.
As the Sao Paulo State Department of Health (SES-SP) reported on Tuesday, since the launch of the new version, “teams have been working on adequacy of operations that should be normalized this week.” Also according to the SES-SP, “It is noteworthy that the SP concentrates the largest volume of COVID-19 statistics in the country and, accordingly, has the largest database of necessary analysis and adjustments.”
The Sao Paulo government stated that there was no training for state technicians on the system’s new data mining operations, and that there was only one meeting on August 27. TV Globo has sought the Ministry of Health and is awaiting return.
Cities in the largest campaign SP hospitals shut down to treat Covid patients after cases drop – Photo: MISTER SHADOW / ASI / ESTADÃO CONTEÚDO
Lowest moving average since April
The values reported in the last week are lower than the notifications during the long vacation, which are generally lower than the weekdays due to the blockage of shift teams.
In Sao Paulo, for example, the average on Tuesday was 755 new cases. For comparison purposes, 14 days ago, on September 1, before the holiday and regime change, the average was 5,546 cases per day.
The variance represents a drop of 86%, the highest drop since the start of the pandemic, according to data released daily by the Media Consortium.
After a week of incomplete disclosure of new cases in Sao Paulo, the moving average has fallen to the level of April 2020, but experts warn that the number does not reflect reality, due to booking cases – Photo: Daniela Anselmo/TV Globo
Sharp reduction should be viewed with suspicion, experts say
Although the epidemic situation in the state of São Paulo is currently at historically low levels of cases, hospitalizations and deaths, researcher Roberto Krinkle, professor at the Institute of Theoretical Physics of São Paulo State University (IFT-Unesp) and a member of Covid-19 BR explains that it should Look at every drop or rise with suspicion when the subject is the reproduction of an epidemic factor, such as the case of the novel coronavirus.
“We follow the trend in the number of cases, whether it is going up or growing or declining. However, when we have a very sudden change in the number of cases … if you have, say, six thousand cases, the next day you have 600 cases You should be skeptical about that,” he says.
“Usually these very sudden changes relate to a problem with the so-called notification system,” he says.
In the current case of São Paulo, for example, other data shows that the current level of new issues may not correspond to reality. The moving average of new admissions to Covid wards and intensive care units in public and private hospitals remains stable at between 620 and 640 new patients per day.
Indeed, the moving average of deaths, which suffered a decline due to blocking notifications during the long vacation, returned this Wednesday (15) to the level of early September, and reached 147 confirmed deaths per day.
The data access problem did not last long
Since the beginning of the pandemic, on other occasions, there have been days when no cases have been reported due to technical problems associated with federal regulations. But the problem did not last more than five days.
In November 2020, virus Detected on a ministry computer, increasing the security of systems, resulting in instability Upon arrival.
In March of this year, Change in the information system for the epidemiological surveillance of influenza (Sivep-Influenza), where serious cases and deaths from Covid are reported, Making new fields mandatory and making it difficult to include new patients. The request was reviewed by the Ministry of Health after protests by municipal and state administrators.
This time, the change included the way managers access the system and changes in several areas, such as the patient’s symptom domain, details of the case notification health unit, details of search strategies, and activity of suspected asymptomatic cases.
In addition, the Covid-19 case system is now integrated with the Covid-19 vaccination system, to add information to new cases whether or not a patient has been vaccinated.
In Brazil, each city council is responsible for accessing notification systems maintained by the federal government to include new Covid-19 cases and to update information as cases progress, such as diagnostic test results and patient progression. On the other hand, state governments are responsible for implementing and disclosing the daily balance of this information to all municipalities. Monthly, Municipal, State, and Federal Administrators meet to discuss and agree on technical issues related to this process
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