Geneva (AFP) – The new coronavirus outbreak in Brazil has stalled, the World Health Organization said on Friday, urging the country to take advantage of the opportunity to reduce transmission.
“The increase in Brazil is no longer exponential, it has stagnated,” WHO chief of health emergencies Michael Ryan said in a virtual press conference.
Brazil is the second country most affected by the virus in the world after the United States, counting almost 77,000 deaths and more than two million cases.
Figures released by the health ministry on Thursday showed there were more than 45,000 new cases in the past 24 hours and 1,300 additional deaths.
But Ryan said the infection rate had now “stabilized.”
He noted that the virus’s reproduction rate (R0), which indicates how fast it is spreading, had been “quite high” in April and May, standing at 1.5 and in many places above 2.0.
That means that each infected person was infecting at least two other people.
But now the number has dropped to between 0.5 and 1.5, he said, saying that “the virus does not duplicate in the community in as fast a sense as before.”
Ryan emphasized that while this was good news, “there is absolutely no guarantee that (the broadcast) will shrink on its own.”
But he noted that there was now “an opportunity here for Brazil to knock down the disease and suppress transmission of the virus.”
He urged Brazil to “take control”, recognizing that “it will take very sustained and concerted action to make that happen.”
“Until now, in many countries, including Brazil, the virus has been in charge, the virus sets the rules,” he said.
“We need to establish the rules for the virus.”
Since the beginning of the crisis, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has dismissed the seriousness of the epidemic and criticized the containment measures ordered by the governors in the Brazilian states.
The far-right leader has tested positive for COVID-19 and is currently in quarantine.
