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The news about the state of affairs in Brazil this month was gloomy. Things are much worse now. The BBC reports that the country reported 2,841 COVID-19 deaths during the past 24 hours on Tuesday night, painting it as a ‘big jump’ from the previous high of 2,286 on March 10. And the health institute Fiocruz said it: ‘The analysis by our researchers suggests that this is the biggest collapse of the hospital and health service in the history of Brazil. More:
- The country will appoint the fourth health minister of the pandemic on Wednesday, Brazilian cardiologist Marcelo Queiroga. Reuters reports that no date has been set for handover.
- He is being asked to consider the possibility of a national exclusion, but in Tuesday’s comments he got nowhere so far, in which he promoted masks and hand washing, but did not force social distance.
- President Jair Bolsonaro spoke out against his reluctance to lock up, and the AP reported Queiroga said on Tuesday that the COVID-19 policy it was going to implement “is from the Bolsonaro government, not from the health minister.”
- Reuters reports Queiroga will take the lock owned by Eduardo Pazuello, an active army general who has no medical degree and has been in the post since May, reports the AP. The two health ministers before him only lasted a short time, in part because they would not endorse the use of hydroxychloroquine as COVID treatment.
- By the Washington Post, Ishaan Tharoor gives a global context: Brazil is number 2 in the total number of cases and deaths, behind the USA. But things are getting better and worse here, in part due to the spread of a more contagious P1 variant over the past two months. Tharoor adds that the use of coronavirus tests, “the key to detecting and stopping a surge in cases”, has declined sharply since December.
- The BBC reports that the ICUs in Rio Grande do Sul are 100% full, and a local politician there on Monday shared an idea showing the desperation. Guardian reports councilor Alberi Dias presented it: ‘We have a lot of business people here who own helicopters and planes … virus is in the air … They use planes to spray crops. Maybe it’s a good idea because alcohol gel does no harm. ‘
- As for the vaccination rate of Brazil, it is low. Our world in data contains its current number of single doses per 100 people at 5.6, compared to 32.62 in the US.
(Read more COVID-19 stories.)