Brazil crosses 150,000 COVID-19 death threshold

BRASILIA | Brazil surpassed the threshold of 150,000 deaths from the coronavirus on Saturday, nearly eight months after the first case appeared, as the number of daily deaths continues to slowly decline.

• Read also: All the developments of the pandemic

With 559 new deaths recorded in the last 24 hours, this country of 212 million inhabitants of continental dimensions officially deplores Saturday evening 150,198 deaths due to COVID-19, according to the latest report made public Saturday evening by the Ministry of Health . Brazil, which also has 5,082,637 cases, is the second most bereaved country in the world after the United States.

The first case was recorded on February 26 and the first death on March 16. The curves then increased exponentially, before leveling off in June, with a never-ending plateau at more than 1,000 daily deaths on average.

The decline began in August, with an average of 932 deaths recorded per day, and continued into September (752). The leveling off of the pandemic was confirmed last week, with 610 deaths per day on average.

The daily average of new cases over a week also sags, to 27,477 against more than 40,000 in early September.

But epidemiologists point out that the drop was much more pronounced in European and Asian countries once the peak was reached.

“We had 55,000 new cases per day, now it’s around 27,000. Yes, we can say that it has dropped a lot, but it’s a bit like moving from the Himalayas to the Alps, we stay in the mountains, ”José David Urbaez, a researcher from the Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases, told AFP.

“Despite this decline, around 600 people still die from COVID-19 every day, so there is still a long way to go,” he continues.

“Do not worry”

While the number of daily deaths remains high, the resumption of economic activities, which began in June, continues at a pace considered too fast by most specialists.

In Sao Paulo, the country’s largest megalopolis, Mayor Bruno Covas announced on Friday the reopening of cinemas, theaters and libraries, with strict health protocols.

“It’s almost impossible not to resume activities, some businesses and industries must reopen their doors, but we must take a lot of precautions,” said Christovam Barcellos, researcher at Fiocruz, a benchmark public health institute.

“Unfortunately, in Brazil, there is no national coordination for this recovery,” he laments.

Since the start of the pandemic, President Jair Bolsonaro has criticized the containment measures taken by the mayors and governors of the various states that make up the country. The far-right leader has repeatedly played down the virus, which he himself contracted in July, without experiencing serious symptoms.

On Saturday, he went to the seaside resort of Guaruja (south-east) and took a photo with supporters without wearing a mask. “If we ever get infected, don’t worry. […] Me, I’m 65, and I haven’t felt anything, not even a little flu. Zero, zero. Nothing, ”the head of state told a supporter during a meeting broadcast live on Facebook.

Mr Bolsonaro urged the woman to remove her mask to start the conversation, and she made it clear that she took it off because she wanted to and not because the president had asked her to: “I hadn’t. and I won’t have COVID, ”she said.

The restrictive measures taken at the local level are often not respected, as evidenced by the crowded beaches in Rio de Janeiro, despite the municipal ban.

Hope for a vaccine

Despite this confusion, specialists still point to positive aspects, particularly in the public health system, with an improvement, over time, in the treatment of serious patients.

“I don’t know if the worst is already over, you never know what can still happen, but it is clear that we have already had much more complicated times”, estimates the head of the intensive care unit from the Emilio Ribas Institute of Infectious Disease, a referral hospital in Sao Paulo.

“A lot of things have changed since the start of our fight against the pandemic, and the bed occupancy rate has dropped,” he concludes.

With a still high level of contamination, Brazil is a favorable ground for vaccine tests: four of them are underway, and the government hopes to be able to produce 140 million doses locally by the first half of 2021.