In Brazil, the epidemic peak has still not arrived and in the meantime, mortality due to Covid-19 is increasing at an increasingly high rate.
This Thursday, Brazil - 210 million inhabitants - thus exceeded the threshold of 20,000 deaths from the new coronavirus, after a record increase of 1,188 deaths in the last 24 hours. The number of new daily deaths had only once exceeded the psychological bar of a thousand, with 1,179 recorded Tuesday.
The number of deaths doubled in just 11 days. An undeniable acceleration but probably underestimated proportions. The scientific community estimates that the real assessment of the pandemic is much higher, perhaps 15 times with regard to the cases of contamination, the country practicing very few tests. The University of Washington is predicting up to 193,000 victims by August in the country, Le Monde reported Monday.
Containment less and less respected
The way Brazilians respect confinement does not encourage optimism. The containment rate, measured from the signal of mobile phones, has been declining steadily for a month, while the extreme right president Jair Bolsonaro, coronasceptic, continues to question the restrictive measures taken by state governors .
This trend could explain one of the specificities of Brazilian mortality. There, the proportion of young adults who die from coronavirus is much higher than in Europe or the United States (31% under the age of 60 compared to 5% on average), especially among the poorest, who have more struggling to respect the rules of social distancing. "As our population is younger, it is normal that the percentage of deaths is higher, but it is also due to the fact that these young adults less respect the confinement measures", indicates to AFP Mauro Sanchez, epidemiologist from the University of Brasilia.
VIDEO. 99-year-old Brazilian veteran cures Covid-19
This active and particularly exposed population is not surprisingly found in metropolitan areas. The state of Sao Paulo, the economic and cultural capital of Brazil, remains by far the most affected by the pandemic, with around a quarter of the dead 5558 Thursday. That of Rio de Janeiro, where the progression of the coronavirus has particularly accelerated in recent days, is the second focus of the country, with 3,412 deaths. In these two states, the hospital intensive care services are very close to saturation and the field hospitals are setting up late.
Three health ministers since the start of the epidemic
Despite this very worrying progression of the virus, far-right president Jair Bolsonaro again called on Thursday for a resumption of activity, in the name of saving an economy promised to a serious recession. His insistence on the return to work of the Brazilians created incessant tensions with the governors of the country, whose powers in matters of public health were reinforced by a decision of the Supreme Court.
Newsletter - The essentials of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to allow you to receive our news and commercial offers. Find out more
Added to this is the controversy surrounding the use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine. It was recommended this Wednesday in the country for patients slightly affected by Covid-19. Bolsonaro took advantage of the arrival of a new interim Minister of Health, Eduardo Pazuello, to impose this decision.
He has been the third Minister of Health since the start of the crisis. The precedent, Nelson Teich, threw in the towel after just four weeks, precisely because of the pressures exerted by Jair Bolsonaro in favor of chloroquine.