Sao Paulo, Brazil – Brazil is preparing for what could be the deadliest month to date of the coronavirus pandemic. The large cemeteries, where new graves are being dug all day, show the scale of the disaster. U.S. health officials say Brazil’s daily COVID-19 figure is expected to reach about 3,500.
Data from Johns Hopkins University show that nearly 355,000 people have died of COVID-19 in Brazil – the highest confirmed number of deaths in all countries except the United States.
AMANDA PEROBELLI / REUTERS
The crisis is being fueled by a dangerous variant, known as P-1, which was first detected in Brazil. The strain has not only spread to the United States, but, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has become the second most common variant of coronavirus in the country.
According to Manuel Bojorquez, a CBS News correspondent, one of the reasons the world is so concerned about what is happening in Brazil is the fact that the more the virus spreads to any region, the more likely it is to mutate.
The P-1 variant is just one example of these mutations. Tension is believed to be more contagious and, in the densely populated neighborhoods of Brazilian cities, social distancing is virtually impossible.
Bojorquez visited Paraisopolis, the second largest favela in the megacity of Sao Paulo. The favelas are low-income neighborhoods, often located in the shadow of rich enclaves. Life was very hard in Paraisópolis before the pandemic, but the virus has amplified poverty and a paralyzed economy means that food insecurity now affects more than half of Brazil’s population.
One resident, Antonio, told CBS News that if he didn’t accept free meals in the community, he would worry about how he would get money for food and made it clear that crime might be his only option.
Marcus Dos Santos works for the non-profit group “Mans de Maria”, which offers about 3,000 lunches every day to the people of the Sao Paulo favela.
“At this worst time, I try to give the best of myself to the rest of the people,” Dos Santos told Bojorquez.
He said he is helping to take responsibility for the people of his country, which he believes the Brazilian government has failed to do.
President Jair Bolsonaro has been criticized for this blatantly ignoring science and reject calls to impose locks. In Sao Paulo, some of the limited restrictions were in fact get up Monday, with sports games allowed to resume without crowds, along with food collection at bars and restaurants.
The measures eased despite the fact that last week, one in four COVID-related deaths worldwide occurred in Brazil. Cemetery workers are literally forced to turn the floor 24 hours a day.
AMANDA PEROBELLI / REUTERS
Burials take place one after the other. In no time, CBS News was in a cemetery, Bojorquez and his team watched as seven families said goodbye to their loved ones. There, in the cemetery, they have the only chance to say goodbye, as funerals are not allowed due to the pandemic.
Lourival Panhozzi, who heads the association of funeral directors in Brazil, said the coronavirus has completely overwhelmed the healthcare system. He said people who might otherwise have been able to treat diseases such as heart disease, find hospitals incapable of suffering from them and, unfortunately, become more deadly victims, if indirectly, of the virus.
The pain seen in the cemeteries is still getting worse, with the fear that things won’t get any better soon.