The state of Sao Paulo, according to the state health secretary, registered a total of 1,021 deaths within 24 hours on Tuesday. The figure is the highest recorded since the start of the pandemic.
The deadliest day for the state in terms of the pandemic was seven days ago, on March 16, when 679 people died within 24 hours. In total, 68,623 people in São Paulo lost their lives to Covid-19.
The health care system is also almost collapsing, with 91.9% of the intensive care units in the state. On Monday, there were 29,039 Covid-19 patients hospitalized in Sao Paulo, of which 12,168 were in intensive care units. As of March 1, the number of hospitalized patients was 15,977, almost half the current number.
The Council of Municipal Health Secretariats of Sao Paulo warned on Monday that 54 cities only have enough oxygen for the rest of the week.
At a news conference on the same day, Governor João Doria announced a partnership with a private liquor company to build an oxygen plant in Ribeirao Preto, one of Sao Paulo’s largest cities.
In an interview with CNN’s Julia Chatterley on Monday, Brazilian Governor Sao Paulo Joao Doria called Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro a “psychopathic leader” and criticized the president’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We are in one of the most tragic moments in history when millions of people are paying a heavy price for having an unprepared and psychopathic leader in charge of a nation,” he said on CNN’s First Move.
Doria said many of the deaths due to the virus in Brazil could have been avoided if Bolsonaro “acted with the responsibility the post gives him”. He added that Bolsonaro “made incredible mistakes, the biggest one was a political dispute with the governors trying to protect the population.”
A little more background: Bolsonaro has repeatedly lashed out at blockages and restrictive measures, criticizing governors and mayors for their implementation. He was also seen greeting the crowd of his supporters during the pandemic without wearing a mask, advocating for drugs such as hydroxychloroquine to treat the virus – a drug that has no proven effectiveness in combating Covid-19 .
According to the Ministry of Health, Brazil now has more than 12 million cases of coronavirus in the country.
CNN’s Julia Chatterley and Hira Humayun contributed to the coverage.