Photographer: Victor Moriyama / Bloomberg
Photographer: Victor Moriyama / Bloomberg
Brazil has reported more than 4,000 Covid-19 deaths daily for the first time as the pandemic continues to rage across the country.
The Ministry of Health registered 4195 deaths on Tuesday, bringing the total since the first time on the virus to 336,947. It is the second highest place worldwide, and the US business alone has risen by 86,979 in the last 24 hours, pushing the toll to 13.1 million.
“If Brazil keeps the current pace, the country is likely to reach 5,000 daily deaths in April,” said Christovam Barcellos, a Fiocruz researcher.
Latin America’s largest country blew past grim milestones in 2021, reporting daily cases and deaths. The revival of the virus, fueled by lax social distancing measures and a new, more contagious variant, has led to the country quickly surpassing 200,000 and then 300,000 deaths in just over two months, overwhelming hospitals.
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In addition to the tensions that arose in the Amazon city of Manaus and which have spread rapidly since the new year, the authorities in Sao Paulo have also detected a new Covid-19. a variant in the city of Sorocaba, near the capital of the state, the local government said on Wednesday. The new strain is apparently similar to that in South Africa and there is still no evidence that the variant is circulating in other regions of the country.
Meanwhile, the Brazilian authorities are trying to accelerate the rate of vaccinations. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, the country fired 25.4 million shots from Monday to cover 9.4% of the population with one shot. The country vaccinated 1 million people in 24 hours for the first time on Thursday.
Anvisa, the country’s health regulator, on Wednesday approved the emergency use of Johnson & Johnson’s jab – the fourth vaccine cleared by the agency. Brazil has bought 38 million doses of the booster, but those doses are not expected to arrive until the second half of the year.
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In a moment when there are few vaccines available, the only measure that can limit the infection is an exclusion, which must be accompanied by measures to help the most vulnerable, Ana Freitas Ribeiro.
However, President Jair Bolsonaro is still opposed to the social distance measures imposed by local governments. On Wednesday, the Minister of Health and the head of the Senate emerged from the first meeting of the joint task force to oversee the response to the pandemic indicating the importance of masks and avoiding large gatherings during the upcoming Easter holiday. When it comes time to talk, Bolsonaro repeats familiar lines to make life normal again and capture critical criticism.
“As our federal government denies the pandemic and is giving a different speech than state governments, the situation is worse,” said Ribeiro, a doctor at Emilio Ribas Hospital in Sao Paulo.
Out of the 27 states of Brazil, 18 have ICUs that occupy more than 90%, Fiocruz said in a report. The combination of intense transmission and overwhelming hospitals, according to the report, has contributed to the continuing and growing number of deaths.
Barcellos added that the collapse of the health system could also lead to an increase in deaths due to other diseases, as patients could not get care.