Brazil’s second most populous city, Rio de Janeiro, recorded 36,437 deaths in March, 16% more than the 32,060 new births of the month, according to the national civil registry. He was not alone; at least ten other Brazilian cities with a population of more than half a million people also recorded more deaths than births last month.
Cities across the country have been hit hard by a recent rise in Covid-19 cases and deaths, fueled in part by new variants that are believed to be extra contagious, as well as the disregard of some Brazilians for precautions. of social distancing. The painful proportion of deaths and births is one more goal toward a national crisis that federal and local officials have largely failed to contain for more than a year of the pandemic.
According to Johns Hopkins University statistics, 77,515 people across Brazil have died from Covid-19 in the last month and more than 2 million new cases have been diagnosed. According to data from state health secretaries, all but three of Brazil’s 27 federal states and districts currently have intensive care unit occupancy rates of 80% or more.
The deployment of vaccines in Brazil has been slow, affected from the beginning by internal political disputes and the difficulty of obtaining vaccine doses. Only 6.3 million people (approximately 3% of the population) have been completely vaccinated, according to the Brazilian Ministry of Health. The same ministry statement stated that 21.1 million people have received at least one dose of vaccine, but that at least 1.5 million of them have delayed their second shot.
Both Coronavac and AstraZeneca vaccines, on which the country depends, require two doses. The Ministry of Health has not presented any reason why some Brazilians have not received their second dose. However, local media have raised questions of confusion or misunderstanding among the public about the importance of the second dose and the difficulties low-income Brazilians have in accessing vaccination centers.
As the coronavirus circulates uncontrollably, new mutations could emerge, experts say. Existing coronavirus variants in the country are already alarming; the P.1 variant identified for the first time in Brazil is driving an increase in cases in neighboring countries and has caused this week in France the suspension of flights to and from the country.
Bombastic President Jair Bolsonaro has adopted the vaccines, recently approaching Russia to reach a possible deal on the Sputnik V vaccine. But critics want to apply the same urgency to other fronts in the battle against the coronavirus. The president has repeatedly downplayed the danger of Covid-19, formerly known as a “small flu,” and insists that the country’s economic health must be prioritized over blocking measures.
In public statements last week, Bolsonaro vowed never to accept a national blocking strategy to contain the coronavirus, despite calls from the United Nations and the respected Brazilian medical research center Fiocruz. He seemed reassured by the sudden death toll and soaring cases in the country, which he abandoned as “spilled milk” during an April 7 event in the southern Brazilian city of Foz do Iguacu.
“We will not cry for spilled milk. We are still living in a pandemic, which is partly used politically not to defeat the virus, but to try to overthrow the president. We are all responsible for what is happening in Brazil,” Bolsonaro said. “What country in the world didn’t see deaths? Unfortunately, people are dying everywhere.”
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