Eighteen of the 26 Brazilian states and one federal district have ICUs with more than 80% capacity, according to federal and state data. Nine of these are on the verge of collapse with more than 90% capacity.
Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello acknowledged the crisis and told state governors on February 25 that new variants of the coronavirus have made controlling the pandemic even more difficult, in a country where mortality rates and infection have been out of control for a long time.
“The mutated virus has three times the capacity for contamination and the speed may surprise rulers in terms of structure and support. That is the reality we have in Brazil today,” he said.
Data from the Brazilian state health secretaries show that the state of Rondonia has more difficulty in increasing the number of cases, with ICUs with 97.5% capacity. It is followed by the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul with 97.2% capacity and the Federal District, which hosts the country’s capital, Brasilia, with 96.45% capacity.
Private hospitals are also collapsing across the country. The Israeli hospital Albert Einstein in Sao Paulo, one of the most exclusive hospitals in Brazil, where the first case of Covid-19 was detected in the country, has a capacity of 100% ICU, the hospital spokesman said on Monday.
Last week, Brazil recorded a record 8,224 deaths over the week, bringing the country’s total death toll to 254,942. Brazil has also registered more than 10.5 million cases since Monday.
It calls for preventive measures
“With the slow vaccination process and the emergence of new variants of the virus and the uncertainties that still entail, the need to disrupt or slow down the virus transmission network through non-pharmacological preventive measures is growing,” the report states.
The call was echoed by the National Council of Health Secretaries of Brazil. In an open letter, the Council demanded that the government of President Jair Bolsonaro impose a national curfew, ban mass meetings and face-to-face education, close beaches and bars and implement a “national communication plan” for emphasize the need for these precautions.
So far, the Council said, that “the absence of a unified and coherent national approach in Brazil has made it difficult to take and implement qualified measures to reduce the social interactions that intensified during the election period, at the end of year, at carnival and summer meetings and parties. “
“Relaxation of protection measures and the circulation of new strains of the virus led to a worsening of the health and social crisis,” he added.
Throughout the pandemic, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has criticized the use of masks, threatened governors with closure measures and blamed previous governments and governors for the lack of beds in the ICU.
Reports provided by journalist Marcia Reverdosa in Sao Paulo, CNN’s Mitch McCluskey in Atlanta and Caitlin Hu in New York.