Brazil on Friday became the second country in the world where the coronavirus kills the most, behind the United States, surpassing the United Kingdom in the macabre count of the victims of the pandemic, with 41,828 deaths. The Ministry of Health reported an additional 909 deaths in the evening in the past 24 hours in the largest country in Latin America, where the pandemic is far from being controlled.
This continent country of 212 million inhabitants is also the second for the number of contaminations behind the United States, with 828,810 cases, according to official data. These figures, estimates the scientific community, could be ten or even fifteen times higher in reality, the country testing very little its population. Reported in proportion to its population, Brazil, however, records 199 deaths per million inhabitants, which places it far behind the United States (344) or the United Kingdom (611).
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The state of Sao Paulo and its 46 million inhabitants remains by far the most affected, with a quarter of the deaths across the country (10,368) and 167,900 confirmed infections. Then comes that of Rio de Janeiro, with 7,417 deaths and nearly 78,000 cases of contamination. These two states have however started in recent days the resumption of economic activity, with the opening of many stores.
Three and a half months after the first reported case, on February 26, in Sao Paulo, the contaminations are progressing at a worrying rate: nearly 26,000 more in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health. In addition, after having hit the biggest cities with full force, the pandemic is now inexorably spreading inside this immense country, putting health systems in medium and small cities at risk.
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"The situation in Brazil is worrying, all states are affected," Mike Ryan, director of health emergencies at the World Health Organization (WHO), said on Friday in a press conference. by videoconference. In Brazil "the health system is not completely saturated, but in some regions there is a strong pressure on the occupation of intensive care beds" , he added.
These words were in response to an initiative by President Jair Bolsonaro, who was criticized as irresponsible by many Brazilian internet users. "It would be good if you went to a hospital near you (...) and found a way to enter to film," said the head of state during his weekly transmission Thursday evening on Facebook. "Many people are already doing it, but more is needed to show whether the beds are occupied or not," he said. "According to my information, I may be wrong, but practically no one has lost their life for lack of a ventilator or a bed in intensive care , " said the far-right president.
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However, caregivers reported to the Brazilian press the painful obligation in which they found themselves to make a choice between patients due to lack of respirators. Since the start of the pandemic, health officials have at times mentioned an occupation of more than 95% of intensive care beds in many states, although this rate has dropped in recent days in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
"If Bolsonaro lived up to his function (...) , he would know that he does not need to send people to invade hospitals. (...) If he wants to visit our hospitals, I show him myself , " reacted on Twitter Flavio Dino, governor of the state of Maranhao (northeast). The president - who downplayed the health crisis and is fiercely hostile to confinement - has never visited the sick or caregivers in hospitals. Likewise, he did not express empathy for the tens of thousands of dead, their families, or the nursing staff who had been under severe strain for weeks.
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