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Brazil has added for the first time this Friday more than 700 deaths in a single day. The latest balance indicates that deaths have doubled in the last 10 days to close to 10,000 deaths. The Ministry of Health has reported 751 new deaths since the previous day, bringing the total to 9,897. And the infections are 10,222, which brings the total to 145,328 confirmed cases. But its distribution in this continental territory is very uneven. And those are the confirmed cases in a country that is at the tail of the tests and where even the authorities admit that the figures are underestimated.
When Brazil surpassed the 4,600 deaths in China and the press asked Bolsonaro, he replied with absolute disdain: “So what? I’m sorry. What do you want me to do? (…) I am a Messiah, but I don’t do miracles”, he said, referring to his middle name: Messias.
Fortaleza is the third capital in Northeast Brazil to toughen quarantine so that citizens can only leave home to go to essential services. São Luis and Belem adopted similar stockings this week while Rio de Janeiro studies whether to follow their example despite President Jair Bolsonaro maintaining pressure for businesses to reopen as before. The city of São Paulo, the largest in the region, will ban half the cars from driving every day starting Monday, in an attempt to get more people to stay home. The contagion curve continues to rise, which worsens the situation in intensive care units with four of the 27 States on the verge of collapse.
Yes, it is known that more than 80% of the deaths have occurred in five states: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco, Ceará and Amazonas, according to the latest balance, this Friday, of the Imperial College London team that analyzes the evolution of the covid-19 in the world. It is therefore in the two main cities, where it entered the country, and three of the poorest States where the impact of the pandemic is most felt. It is also in these places especially where the occupation of intensive care units (ICU) is highest. In the case of Pernambuco or Rio de Janeiro, it is around 97%. Scientists at Imperial College argue that although isolation measures have reduced the rate of contagion, cases continue to increase exponentially.
Measuring expansion is difficult in Brazil because it is one of the Latin American countries that has performed the least test. The results of 100,000 analyzes are pending to be counted, as admitted by the Ministry of Health. But some data suggests that the pandemic is much more deadly than the official balance indicates. The city of Manaus, from where dramatic accounts and images of collective burials arrive, recorded 2,607 deaths in April, which is more than double the number that occurred in April 2019, according to data collected by this newspaper on the Transparency portal of records civilians of Brazil. Deaths also increased that month, although more moderately, around 26%, in São Paulo and Fortaleza, according to the same source. Although quarantine has not been tightened in Manaus, ICUs and cemeteries still face serious problems. This Friday dozens of coffins bought by local funeral companies in the southern state of Santa Catarina have reached the Amazon capital.
The Brazilian authorities have never managed to agree on a joint plan or even minimum measures. The president is on one side; and the governors on the other, although with nuances. The greatest threat to the management of the coronavirus in Brazil is its president, according to the scientific journal The Lancet, who dedicates a very hard editorial to him. “Such a disorder at the heart of the Administration is a deadly distraction in the midst of a health emergency and is a strong indication that the Brazilian leadership has lost its moral compass,” he says.
Some states, such as the wealthy Santa Catarina, relaxed quarantines last week even with opening parties in some shopping malls. That joy turned to bitter disappointment when the infections spiked. Others have not wanted to take that risk and have rejected their initial plans to reopen as the governor of the most populous state, São Paulo. What’s more, João Doria has extended the quarantine until May 31 because “the scenario is bleak,” he confessed this Friday, with a citizenry that disregards the recommendations and a president who constantly fights them. Doria has revealed that infections within the State have increased 3,300% in the last 30 days. The Governor of São Paulo, who was an ally of Bolsonaro although today they are strongly confronted, has stressed: “It is the worst moment of the pandemic. It just doesn’t recognize who is blinded by hatred or personal ambition. “
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