BRASILIA / PORTO ALEGRE (Reuters) – Hospitals in Brazil’s most important cities are reaching capacity, health officials warned as the country recorded the highest COVID-19 death rate in the world, causing stricter restrictions on Thursday in its populous state.
Intensive care units for the treatment of COVID-19 patients have reached critical occupancy levels of more than 90% in 15 of 27 state capitals, according to biomedical center Fiocruz.
In Porto Alegre in southern Brazil, the main referral hospital for COVID-19 has stopped allowing new cases because all its ICU beds have been taken. A Reuters photographer has seen patients on emergency rooms attract emergency rooms.
“It’s a warning. We have reached capacity and people need to be made aware of how bad the situation is, ”said Claudio Oliveira, director of Conceiçao Hospital. It was the first time the hospital had turned away patients since the H1N1 epidemic in 2009.
Oliveira told reporters the hospital closed its doors to avoid the collapse of care for the COVID patients there.
The death toll from COVID-19 for the last 24 hours exceeded 2,000 for the second time, the Ministry of Health said on Thursday, with 2,233 deaths and new infections rising by 75,412.
With more than 272,000 deaths, the death toll from Brazil in the past year alone has been traced to the United States. But in the past week, Brazil has averaged more than 1,600 deaths a day, ahead of about 1,400 in the United States, where the outbreak has slowed.
As President Jair Bolsonaro cracked down on locks and forced Brazilians out of their homes, governors and mayors struggled to enforce restrictions, pleading in vain with a population that ensured the rising tide of the epidemic.
The legal president on Thursday again attacked governors for the lockdown, including the state of Sao Paulo to ban football matches. He said they are increasing poverty with a drug that is worse than the virus.
‘How long can we endure this lock-up responsibility? You shut everything down and destroy millions of jobs. “Locking up is not a cure,” Bolsonaro told a business group in a video address with Economy Minister Paulo Guedes by his side.
The two most populous cities in Brazil, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, withdrew on Thursday to tighten measures as their hospitals struggled with a second wave of the virus, driven by a more contagious variant found in the Amazon region originated.
While Europe and the United States are increasing vaccinations and reducing their effects, the Brazilian federal government is starting slowly, with only 2% of the 210 million Brazilians fully vaccinated so far.
In the capital Brasilia, under a night clock, the ICU wards of the public hospital are 97% full and the private persons are at 99%, forcing the city to set up field hospitals again as during a peak in cases last year .
Joao Doria, governor of Sao Paulo, on Thursday announced a “new phase” of restrictions on renouncing society, arguing that it is now the only weapon against the spread of the virus.
These include a curfew from 8pm to 5pm, the suspension of religious services and sporting events, including football matches, and people not being allowed to use beaches and parks.
‘It’s a difficult, unpopular decision. “No governor wants to stop economic activity in their state,” Doria told a news conference.
The state of Sao Paulo, where about 44 million people live, currently only allows essential stores such as supermarkets and pharmacies to receive buyers.
The health secretary of Sao Paulo said hospitals in more than half of the state’s municipalities are full and half of the patients are less than 50 years old.
Last year, the most serious cases were concentrated among elderly Brazilians.
Additional reporting by Eduardo Simoes in Sao Paulo and Rodrigo Viga Gaier in Rio de Janeiro; Writing by Jamie McGeever and Anthony Boadle; Edited by Brad Haynes, Bill Berkrot, Jonathan Oatis and Daniel Wallis