Covid-19 in Puerto Rico: Perspective from an Internal Medicine Resident Physician

I will start by narrating the situation lived in Puerto Rico from the beginning of the pandemic and how the Government took action to control the contagious. It all began with strict curfew, social distancing orders and restricted outdoor activities.

As of May 27, 2020, Puerto Rico Health Department has reported a total of 3,397 positive cases of COVID-19. They reported a total number of deaths related to COVID-19 of 129, with 61 of them confirmed by positive test results. We can report the case fatality rate in Puerto Rico is 3.7%. This percentage has decrease since April 2020. Hopefully, we have experienced a plateau in reported cases in the past weeks.

In the West region of Puerto Rico, in the municipality of Mayaguez we can report 80 cases of COVID-19 positive infection. Twenty-four of these cases have been diagnosed in our Institution, Mayaguez Medical Center. Twelve of these patients have been admitted to our hospital with moderate symptomatology. Seven of them were discharged with negative COVID-19 PCR tests, and one patient is still under inpatient management. Sadly, we can report that four of these patients passed away fighting against COVID-19.

As a resident physician, we are following all the available guidelines and still learning about the virus behavior and response to treatment. We have experienced mixed feelings from frustration, sadness of losing a patient to the joy of knowing that our patient PCR came back negative. The efforts to write and publish our testimonials is a small contribution to our community and a claiming desire to learn more. There are many researches running up and associations between hospitals and residency programs that have shown the importance of communication and publication during this critical moment of crisis.