In the coastal city of Rio de Janeiro, intensive care units are 95% full. Fifteen other capitals are also collapsing, with an occupancy rate of more than 90% on the ICU – an avalanche of hospitalizations accompanied by a sharp increase in Covid-19 cases in the country.
“Here it has become a war against the president. It looks like people are just dying for Covid,” Bolsonaro, who was not wearing a mask, told supporters outside the presidential palace on Thursday.
“The hospitals are 90% occupied. But we have to determine how much of Covid is and how much of other diseases,” he said.
Many state health departments in Brazil do show data for the ICU capacity dedicated to Covid-19 and for other diseases.
On Thursday, the Brazilian Ministry of Health reported that 2,724 more people died that day from the virus, bringing the total to 287,499. These numbers make Brazil the second country worst affected in the world in terms of the number of cases and deaths, next to the United States.
Bolsonaro, who has long underestimated the severity of the pandemic, also said on Thursday he regretted the death of the country but questioned the effectiveness of the closure measures he had resisted.
“Of course we want a solution and regret any death, but why did the lock exist? You see the population is suffering from unemployment. Imagine me in a country where the fight against the Covid is working,” Bolsonaro said.
As the number of cases increases, the Brazilian president is facing critical criticism from citizens, potential political rivals and local officials across the country, many of whom have demanded that Bolsonaro step up federal action.
Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who did not rule out re-election in 2022, slammed the current government’s response to the pandemic, saying “there is no control in Brazil”.
A joint letter from the country’s governors at the weekend called on the president to restrict, among other things, the operation of airports, ports, highways and railways in the country. Many have already introduced local lock-in measures.
The National Front of Mayors (FNP) also sent a letter to the president and the health ministry on Thursday asking for ‘immediate measures’ to address critical shortages of supplies and medicines, including oxygen and sedatives.
“It is unreasonable that people, Brazilian citizens, are driven to such desperate deaths by ‘drowning in the dry’ or that they have to be tied up and maintain their consciousness during the delicate and painful process of intubation and that people throughout the period intubate., ‘reads the letter.
The Federal Council of Pharmacists in Brazil (CFF) says the current flood of Covid-19 cases is ‘extremely worrying’ because there is also evidence of deficiencies in neuromuscular blockers and other drugs used in intensive care, such as Midazolam, which are for human and safe intubation.
The Council of Health Secretaries has confirmed to CNN that the medicine is at a critical level and could run out within 20 days.
Journalist Marcia Reverdosa reports from Sao Paulo and Radina Gigova from CNN from Atlanta. Rodrigo Pedroso and Caitlin Hu contributed to this story.