Controversy over Bolsonaro's sayings about deaths in Brazil 2:13
Sao Paulo (CNN) -
Last week, Brazil experienced its deadliest day since the start of the pandemic, with 4,195 people killed in just 24 hours.
The state of Sao Paulo and the city of Rio de Janeiro are among the worst in the country for deaths from covid-19.
However, both had planned to ease movement restrictions starting Monday.
Sao Paulo would reopen state schools, sporting events and construction stores.
Rio de Janeiro would allow bars and restaurants to operate again, repealing restrictions in force since March.
Sao Paulo authorities justify the reopening by noting that occupancy rates in intensive care units in the state have fallen from the crisis level of 90.5% to 88.6%.
"This measure clearly shows that the effort made in recent weeks is beginning to pay off," Lieutenant Governor Rodrigo García said at a press conference on April 9.
But the daily numbers remain very grim: On Friday alone, the state recorded more than 20,000 new cases.
Meanwhile, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, the occupancy rates of intensive care units (ICU) are higher than 92%.
However, Mayor Eduardo Paes has decided to ease the restrictions.
«This is an answer for those who think that restrictions do not serve to prevent parties and crowds.
Our reality does not allow confinement, "Paes said at a press conference on Friday, adding that merchants and the general population suffer economically from such measures.
Still, he said, "This is not the time to relax."
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Ending the restrictions is the opposite of what many institutions and medical specialists say Brazil needs: a national and coordinated lockdown.
At the moment, Brazil has only fully vaccinated 2.8% of its population, just over 6 million people, in a country of 210 million.
Currently, Brazil's public and private healthcare systems are under immense pressure, with ICUs in at least 17 states with more than 90% occupancy.
Intubation medication and oxygen have been repeatedly depleted at some points during the pandemic.
On Thursday, the National Council of Municipal Health Secretariats declared that around a fifth of all cities in the country were at risk of running out of medical oxygen for the next ten days.
Only a confinement can prevent April from being "even worse" than March, the most fatal month of the pandemic in the country so far, with 66,573 registered deaths, according to the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), a public biomedical research center that currently is working with the vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca.
“Confinements are a bitter remedy, but they are absolutely necessary in times of crisis and collapse of the health system like the one the country is going through now.
Only this will prevent more deaths and save lives effectively, “Fiocruz scientists wrote in a recent report.
The United Nations office in Brazil has also called for the country to impose movement restrictions and has warned that an accelerating death rate and the absence of a coordinated national plan are "leading the country to catastrophe."
Bolsonaro criticizes states that put restrictions 0:25
Brazil has never had a real confinement
Since the pandemic began, Brazil has seen a patchwork of local restrictions on movement or activity, but they never amounted to effective blanket confinement, neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis told CNN.
Nicolelis, a prominent Brazilian scientist, created one of the country's first scientific committees to study the coronavirus and develop tactics to counter the disease, and has advised on regional covid-19 strategies.
He and other medical experts and civil society groups are part of Brazil's "April for Life" campaign, which calls on the federal government to impose an immediate national lockdown.
“Confinement is when the flow of people is restricted: streets, roads, flights, in addition to achieving strict social isolation.
That has never been widely achieved in Brazil, we only had a few exceptions, ”said Nicolelis.
"In general, we had the application of some restrictive measures with low levels of adherence by people."
"April for Life" estimates that a strict national confinement for 30 days, with strict rules on the movement of people, could save 22,000 lives.
«If you look at the Brazilian curves in Rio de Janeiro and even in São Paulo, you see peaks and valleys.
Death spikes, then they temporarily shut down some things and you see a little drop, but the drop is not sustainable.
Ultimately, the transmission of the virus is not stopped efficiently, but rather an environment is created for new variants to emerge, ”said Nicolelis.
He says Brazil needs greater federal leadership, an accelerated deployment of vaccines and a national lockdown imposed by the federal government in which only essential services are allowed and most movements are prohibited.
“The virus is a collective organism, and it is only possible to fight it collectively.
It is useless to close a city if we want to leave the rest open, you need a coordinated action, otherwise, the virus will continue to grow, "he said.
However, Brazilian authorities have resisted taking such measures to contain the spread of the virus.
The federal government, headed by President Jair Bolsonaro, has in fact shown fierce opposition to the imposition of restrictions, out of concerns about the economy.
"The one who closed the markets and shops and forced people to stay at home was not me," Bolsonaro said on Saturday, during a visit to the outskirts of Brasilia, referring with disdain to mayors and governors who have adopted local restrictive measures. .
"I have the power to sign a document to decree a confinement throughout the country, but this will not be done and our army will not take to the streets to impose that people stay at home," declared the president without a mask.
His newly appointed Ministry of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, has also rejected the idea.
"The order (of the president) is to avoid confinement," Queiroga said on April 3.
Local lockdowns have worked
Three hours from Sao Paulo, Edinho Silva is one of the few mayors in Brazil who has gone against the current.
He imposed a total lockdown in the city of Araraquara, closed shops, including supermarkets and public transport, and banned the movement of people for 10 days in February, a decision that prompted death threats against him.
He took the dramatic step after seeing hospitals in the agribusiness-oriented city starting to fill up.
The city of 250,000 inhabitants was the first in the state of Sao Paulo to see its health system collapse under the weight of new cases of covid-19, forcing serious cases from crowded ICUs to be transferred to other cities.
“(Confine) was a tough decision that required sacrifices, especially from small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, because there is no financial aid for them in Brazil.
But with the contagion curve we had, there was nothing else to do, ”Silva said.
Soon after, he began receiving death threats from supporters of Bolsaro, Silva told CNN.
Does anyone know where Mayor Edinho lives?
I just want a round (of fight) with him.
Then I'm going to stab him from the bottom up, ”said a man on social media, according to Silva.
Police are now investigating the threats.
Despite the personal risks, Silva's strict approach appears to have worked.
Since the end of the 10-day lockdown, some restrictions have remained in the city, including a nightly curfew from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. and limited hours for bars and restaurants, and the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths from Araraquara has steadily declined.
For three consecutive days last week, Araraquara had no deaths due to covid-19.
It's a small sign of hope, but one that stands out amid the accelerating coronavirus crisis in Brazil.
"Confinement is not a choice, reality imposes it," says Silva.
"If you don't adopt it, you will pile coffins, there is no other way."
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