(Newser)
– The headlines about the state of affairs in Brazil this month have been gloomy. Things are much worse now. The BBC reports that on Tuesday night the country reported 2,841 deaths from COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, a “big jump” from the previous high of 2,286 on 10 March. And the Fiocruz health institute said this: “The analysis of our researchers suggests that it is the biggest collapse of the hospital and health service in the history of Brazil.” Month:
- The country will on Wednesday appoint the fourth pandemic health minister, Brazilian cardiologist Marcelo Queiroga. Reuters reports that no delivery date has been set.
- He is urged to weigh in on the possibility of a national shutdown, but did not go that far in Tuesday’s comments, in which he promoted masks and hand washing, but did not encourage social distancing.
- President Jair Bolsonaro has been uncomfortable about his unease over the closures and the AP reports that Queiroga said on Tuesday that the COVID-19 policy he will implement “belongs to the Bolsonaro administration, not the Health Minister.”
- Reuters reports that Queiroga will occupy the strip occupied by Eduardo Pazuello, an active-duty army general who has no medical degree and has been working since May, the AP reports. The previous two health ministers were short-lived, in part because they would not endorse the use of hydroxychloroquine as a COVID treatment.
- At the Washington Post, Ishaan Tharoor gives some global context: Brazil is number 2 in total number of cases and deaths, behind the US. But things are getting better here and worse there, in part due to the spread of a more contagious P1 variant over the past two months. Tharoor adds that the use of coronavirus tests, “key to tracking and stopping an increase in cases,” has experienced a sharp decline since December.
- The BBC reports that the Rio Grande do Sul ICUs are 100% full, and a local politician there on Monday shared an idea showing despair. Guardian according to councilor Alberi Dias, he offered it: “Here we have a lot of entrepreneurs who have helicopters and planes … I don’t know if there is a liquid version of alcohol ice, but I think spraying it would be a good idea because the virus is in the air … They use planes to spray the crops. Maybe it’s a good idea because alcohol gel doesn’t hurt. “
- As for Brazil’s vaccination rate, it’s low. Our World in Data lists the current number of single doses per 100 people at 5.6, compared to 32.62 in the United States.
(Read more COVID-19 stories.)