“Health systems in most of Brazil’s largest cities are on the brink of collapse due to the Covid-19 case,” the country’s leading health agency issue warning.
More than 80 percent of ICU beds in the capitals of 25 of Brazil’s 27 states are occupied, Fiocruz said.
Experts issue warning, Brazil’s highly contagious options could have an impact on the region and beyond.
“Brazil is a threat to humanity,” Fiocruz epidemiologist Jesse Orelana told.
Since the pandemic began, the country has recorded more than 266,000 deaths and 11 million cases.
Health systems in most of Brazil’s largest cities are on the brink of collapse due to the Covid-19 case, the country’s leading health agency issue warning.
More than 80 percent of ICU beds in the capitals of 25 of Brazil’s 27 states are occupied, Fiocruz said.
Experts issue warning, Brazil’s highly contagious options could have an impact on the region and beyond.
“Brazil is a threat to humanity,” Fiocruz epidemiologist Jesse Orelana told.
Since the pandemic began, the country has recorded more than 266,000 deaths and 11 million cases.
Read more: WHO is concerned about Brazil and warns on calming fight
It has the second highest number of deaths in the world after the United States and the third highest number of confirmed cases.
However, President Jair Bolsonaro has consistently spoken out against quarantine measures and expert advice to fight the coronavirus.
What is the situation in Brazil?
On Tuesday, the country recorded 1,772 deaths from Covid, a new daily record.
According to Fiocruz, 15 US capitals have intensive care units with capacities of more than 90%, including Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Sao Paulo.
“Two cities – Porto Alegre and Campo Grande have exceeded ICU capacity”.
In its report, the institute gives warning that the figures were leading to “an overload and even collapse of the health system”.
“The fight against Covid-19 was lost in 2020 and there is not the slightest chance of reversing this tragic circumstance in the first half of 2021,” said Jesse Orelana of Fiocruz.
“The best we can do is hope for the miracle of mass vaccination or a radical change in the management of the pandemic. Impunity in management seems to be the rule”.
Read more: Covid variant in Brazil ‘may spread more easily
As of Tuesday, the country had more than 70,000 cases, according to local media, a 38% increase from last week. This increase was due to the spread of a highly contagious variant of the virus called P.1. Which is believed to have originated in the Manaus Amazonian region.
What do we know about the virus variant in Brazil?
Preliminary data from the University of Sao Paulo, Imperial College London and the University of Oxford suggest that the P.1 variant can be transmitted up to twice as often as the original version of the virus.
He also suggested that the new version could circumvent the innate immunity because it has the original version of Covid. The chance of reinfection is between 25% and 60%.
Last week, the Fiocruz Institute said P.1 was just one of several “worrying options” that had become dominant in six of the eight countries surveyed by the Rio-Janeiro-based organization.
“This information is an atomic bomb,” Roberto Kraenkel of the Covid-19 observatory in Brazil told the Washington Post.
The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Gebrees, described the situation in Brazil. As “very worrying” and warned of a possible regional spread.
“If Brazil is not serious, then it will continue to affect all the neighbourhood there and beyond”.
What is Brazil doing about increase the number of cases?
Last week, experts told the Valor Economic newspaper that the number of deaths in the near future will exceed 2,000 per day. They issue warning that the only way to avoid this was for the federal government to take over national coordination to fight the virus and recommended blockades, use of masks and mass vaccinations.
Since the pandemic began, President Bolsonaro has tried to downplay the threat posed by the virus.
“Earlier this week he told people to stop whining”. At one event he said, “How long are you going to keep crying about it? How much longer will you stay at home and close everything? No-one can stand it anymore. We regret the deaths, again, but we need a solution”.
The mayor and governor have imposed a number of quarantine measures, which Bolsonaro is fighting. Arguing that the damage it will do to the economy will be worse than the effects of the virus itself.
