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The death rate of covid-19 in Amazonas is above the national average
Away from international news since the wave of fires recorded in different parts of the Amazon last year, Manaus once again appeared in newspapers and televisions around the world this week thanks to images of dozens of coffins buried side by side in huge mass graves, while backhoes left room for more bodies.
According to the city council, the mass graves, classified by the municipality as “trenches”, preserve “the identity of the bodies and family ties.” But, in addition to the shock, the images expose an account that does not close and worries health officials.
The capital of Amazonas recorded 120 burials last Wednesday (22), four times the daily average of 30 burials recorded before the new coronavirus pandemic, according to the city of Manaus.
Officially, according to data released by the Amazonas Health Surveillance Foundation, an organ of the state health department, Manaus only had 7 confirmed deaths related to the new coronavirus last Wednesday.
Taking into account these 7 deaths, plus the 30 that would happen daily for different reasons in the city in normal times, there would be more than 80 corpses that escape the pattern registered in the city.
“The cause of death is not well defined,” the city told BBC News Brazil.
The underreporting knot has worsened in Manaus and in the country’s main capitals since the end of March, when deaths from the disease accelerated across Brazil.
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Reuters
The state has the second incidence rate of the worst case in the population
‘Respiratory syndromes’
According to the state government, 2,286 of the 2,888 confirmed cases in Amazonas as of this Thursday (23) are from Manaus (79.1% of the total). In the capital, until the closing of this report, there was a record of “193 deaths confirmed by the new coronavirus.”
Manaus is the most populous city in the Amazon region, with an estimated population of 2,182,763 people, according to the IBGE. The city is the only one in the entire state of Amazonas, the largest in Brazil, with ICU beds.
The combination of the lack of a robust health structure in the state with the intensity of the pandemic in Brazil further complicates this scenario.
On the last Wednesday alone, more than 70 people may have swelled the underreporting broth in Manaus alone.
According to the city, of the 120 funerals on Wednesday, “only 7 were reported as Covid-19 and 3 other suspects.”
“Of these, another 30 burials had an unknown or undetermined cause of death, while 43 were due to syndromes or respiratory complications,” the municipality said in the report.
The total number of deaths that may have to do with the coronavirus, but do not enter the statistics, would be at least 73.
The trend had already appeared the day before (04/21).
Of 136 burials, “39 had an unknown, unspecified, or undetermined cause,” the municipality said.
“Another 47 were due to respiratory syndrome or failure.”
There is a consensus among doctors around the world that respiratory problems are among the common complications associated with the new coronavirus.
Deaths at home
In the report, the city of Manaus also highlighted the worrying number of people who die in their homes, away from doctors or hospital teams.
Of the 120 killed last Wednesday, “23 were deaths in the home,” according to official data.
The number is equivalent to approximately 20% of deaths.
On the eve, Tuesday (21), the average number of domestic deaths was worse: more than 30%, according to data from the city council. There were 136 burials, of which 42 due to death in the home.
“(This) points out that many people are already dying without medical attention and the reason for the cause of death is not well defined,” the city says in a note for BBC News Brazil.
Even without considering under-registration, Amazonas has the worst mortality rate in the country: 45 deaths per million inhabitants. The following are Pernambuco and Rio de Janeiro, with 24 deaths per million.
Manaus is also at the top when the parameter is recorded deaths. “Among the capitals, Manaus, Recife, São Paulo, Fortaleza and Rio de Janeiro had the highest mortality rates,” says the Ministry of Health.
The state also has the worst incidence rate of the new coronavirus in the entire country, 521 cases per million inhabitants, according to the latest Ministry of Health bulletin (04/20), somewhere around 2.7 times the national average.
Evidence missing
According to the Ministry of Health, before April 16, more than 8,000 laboratory tests for covid-19 were sent to Amazonas.
The total in Brazil was 476,272 tests.
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Reuters
Low tests do not allow knowing the actual size of the local epidemic and controlling contagion
The World Health Organization (WHO) insists that mass testing is among the main measures to combat the pandemic.
The agency’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that testing any suspected case of covid-19, the disease caused by this virus, is essential to identify and isolate as many infected people as possible and know who may have been in contact. with them so that the transmission chain can be broken.
BBC News Brazil, last week, doctors in Manaus reported on the difficulty imposed by the lack of evidence.
“They are people with suspicions that covid-19 contaminates everyone. We don’t know who has it, who doesn’t, because even the exams are missing,” said a professional who works in an emergency in the capital.
According to the state government, in addition to Manaus, 14 other municipalities in the state recorded confirmed deaths from the coronavirus.
In total, 41 deaths would have occurred in the interior on Thursday: 14 in Manacapuru, 5 in Iranduba, 5 in Maués, 4 in Itacoatiara, 3 in Parintins, 2 in Careiro Castanho, one in Manicoré, one in Tabatinga, one in Presidente Figueiredo , one in Tefé, one in Novo Airão, one in Barcelos, one in Beruri and one in Carauari.
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