Eighteen of Brazil’s 26 states and one federal district have ICUs with more than 80% capacity, federal and state data show. Nine of them are on the brink of collapse with more than 90% capacity.
Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello acknowledged the crisis and told state governors on February 25 that new coronavirus variants had made the fight against the pandemic even more difficult in a country where mortality and infection rates had long raged out of control.
“The mutated virus has three times more polluting capacity, and the speed may surprise governors in terms of structure and support. That is the reality we have in Brazil today,” he said.
Data from Brazilian state health secretaries show that the state of Rondônia is struggling the most with the increasing number of cases, with ICUs at 97.5% capacity. It is followed by the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul with a capacity of 97.2% and the Federal District, with the capital Brasilia, with a capacity of 96.45%.
Private hospitals are also collapsing across the country. Sao Paulo Hospital, Israelita Albert Einstein, one of Brazil’s most exclusive hospitals – where the first case of Covid-19 was detected in the country – has 100% ICU capacity, the hospital’s spokesman said on Monday.
Last week, Brazil recorded a record 8,224 deaths over the course of the week, bringing the country’s total death toll to 254,942. Brazil also registered more than 10.5 million cases as of Monday.
Calls for preventive measures
“With the slow vaccination process and the emergence of new variants of the virus and the uncertainties it still entails, the need to disrupt or slow down the virus transmission network through non-pharmacological preventive measures,” the report reads.
The call was repeated by the National Council of Health Secretaries in Brazil. In an open letter, the Council called on the government of President Jair Bolsonaro to introduce a national curfew, ban mass gatherings and personal tutoring, close beaches and pubs, and implement a “National Communications Plan” to address the need. of such precautions.
So far, the Council has said that Brazil’s’ absence of a unified and cohesive national approach has made it difficult to adopt and implement qualified measures to intensify the social interactions that took place during the election period, at the end of the year, reduce summer and carnival gatherings and festivals. “
“The relaxation of protection measures and the spread of new strains of the virus have led to the worsening health and social crisis,” he added.
During the pandemic, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro criticized the use of masks, threatened governors who took lock-in measures, and blamed previous governments and governors for the lack of ICU beds.
Reporting contributed by journalist Marcia Reverdosa in Sao Paulo, Mitch McCluskey of CNN in Atlanta and Caitlin Hu in New York.