Brazil - Coronavirus COVID-19

[margarita25]

WHO official: Brazil is dealing with "raging inferno" of a COVID outbreak

“What he's saying: "The crucial thing to be doing right now are those proven steps that we know will slow down this virus," Aylward said during a media briefing.

• “What you are dealing with here is a raging inferno of an outbreak, and that requires population-level action in the rapid identification, isolation, [and] quarantining because you have to approach this at that scale to slow this thing down."“

 

[margarita25]

Covid-19: Why have deaths soared in Brazil?

“Dr Nicolelis says: "Brazil is not only the epicentre of the pandemic worldwide, it's a threat to the entire effort of the international community to control the pandemic. We are brewing new variants every week."“

 

[margarita25]

‘Out of control’: Brazil’s COVID surge sparks regional fears

“Much of the fear is being directed to the P1 variant, linked to the Brazilian Amazon. If Brazil cannot control its high transmission rate, experts fear the country’s healthcare tragedy could endanger the world. If the virus is left to circulate freely, it could create the ideal breeding ground for new and even more deadly variants.”

 

[LeeAnnB]

Thanks for keeping us updated on what’s going in Brazil margarita. It’s a really desperate situation. The poor are so crowded, the President is a criminal and their healthcare system is a mess. It’s very concerning. My husband is Brazilian and Brazilians travel to the US a lot. It’s extremely worrisome.

 

[margarita25]

‘Tragic combination’: Millions go hungry amid Brazil COVID crisis
19 million Brazilians have gone hungry during the pandemic, new study finds, as food insecurity is also on the rise.

 

[margarita25]

Thanks for keeping us updated on what’s going in Brazil margarita. It’s a really desperate situation. The poor are so crowded, the President is a criminal and their healthcare system is a mess. It’s very concerning. My husband is Brazilian and Brazilians travel to the US a lot. It’s extremely worrisome.

You are welcome, LeAnnB.

Yes it is, very, very concerning and desperate. There are no words.

 

[margarita25]

Brazil's virus outlook darkens amid COVID vaccine delays

“The death toll is forecast to continue rising in the next two weeks to an average of nearly 3,500 per day before receding, according to the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

Public health experts blame President Jair Bolsonaro for refusing to enact strict measures to halt infections and for clashing with governors and mayors who did.

Failure to control the spread has been compounded by the Health Ministry betting big on a single vaccine, AstraZeneca, then buying only one backup, the Chinese-manufactured CoronaVac, after supply problems emerged.“

 

[margarita25]

“Intensive care units for COVID-19 patients in most Brazilian states are above 90% capacity. Seven of every 10 hospitals in the country risk running out of supplemental oxygen and anaesthetic in the next few days, the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported on April 8.

The surge of deaths has brought widespread outcry. Brazil’s Association of Collective Health, which has nearly 20,000 members including doctors, nurses and health experts, published an open letter this week demanding a three-week national lockdown, echoing increasingly urgent calls from others.

Bolsonaro has refused proposed lockdowns, arguing their economic impact would be even more devastating than the virus. He even took three states to the Supreme Court last month for adopting such restrictions.

“If we just wait for the vaccine to reach all risk groups, many people will die,” said the health association’s president, Gulnar Azevedo e Silva. “There is no national coordination. And if we don’t have that, what happens? Chaos.”

Carla Domingues, former coordinator of Brazil’s national immunization program, praised the country for approaching 1 million doses per day but said it had the infrastructure for a stronger campaign if only the government had secured the vaccines.

“Of course, we would like to vaccinate more, like in the U.S., but we can't,” she said. “We’re going to have to live with this virus for a long time.”“

Brazil's virus outlook darkens amid COVID vaccine delays

 

[margarita25]

'Grim reaper' artist in Berlin protests Brazil virus stance

 

[margarita25]

Brazil now has more young than old COVID patients in ICUs

“The number of people aged 39 or younger in intensive care units with COVID-19 in March rose sharply to more than 11,000, or 52.2 percent of the total, said the Brazilian ICU Project.”

[...]

"Previously, this was a population that would typically only develop a less-severe form of the disease and would not need intensive care. So the increase for this age group is very significant," said Dr. Ederlon Rezende, co-coordinator of the project, an initiative of the Brazilian Association of Intensive Medicine (AMIB).”

[...]

“Another factor may be the new Brazilian variant, known as P1, which experts say is partly responsible for the country's COVID-19 death toll exploding in March.

The numbers suggest that P1, which can re-infect people who have had the original strain of the virus, may also be more virulent, Rezende said.

"The patients arriving in ICUs now are younger, have no pre-existing conditions and are developing more severe cases of the virus, too," he told AFP.“

 

[margarita25]

Brazil sees 1,803 COVID-19 deaths; Chinese vaccine found 50.7% effective against variant

“Sao Paulo’s Butantan biomedical institute, which tested and is now producing the CoronaVac vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd, said on Sunday a study it conducted found the shot had an efficacy rate of 50.7% against the P1 variant, and a less widespread strain known as P2.“

 

[margarita25]

Resurgence of COVID-19 in Manaus, Brazil, despite high seroprevalence - The Lancet
Feb. 26, 2021

 

[margarita25]

Brazil finds new virus variant combining 18 mutations

 

[margarita25]

Brazil Covid-19: Deaths outpace births in some Brazilian cities, as the coronavirus resurges - CNN

 

[margarita25]

Brazil’s COVID-19 Crisis and Jair Bolsonaro’s Presidential Chaos
Is the President’s do-nothing approach to the pandemic finally becoming a threat to his political future?

In the past few weeks, Brazil has had the world’s highest covid-19 death count, a predicament which seems to have been driven by Jair Bolsonaro’s response to the crisis.Photograph by Lalo de Almeida / Folhapress / Panos Pictures / Redux


“Brazil’s predicament does seem to have been driven by Bolsonaro’s responses, which have been imitative of those adopted by former President Donald Trump, whom he openly admires. From the outset of the crisis, Bolsonaro has waffled on mask-wearing, opposed lockdowns, promoted hydroxychloroquine as a preventative remedy, and eschewed a federal response to the pandemic. In public statements, he has derided covid-19 as “mere sniffles,” while telling Brazilians that “we all have to die sometime.” Even after he contracted the virus himself, he rarely wore a mask in public. Most recently, he berated Brazilians for “whining” and told them to stop being “sissies,” while discouraging them from getting vaccinations—and joking that, if they do, they might “turn into crocodiles.”“

 

[margarita25]

Brazil digging graves around the clock as it faces possible worst month yet of COVID crisis

An aerial view of an excavator digging graves on the last piece of land available as new burials are suspended, except private deposits and children, at Vila Nova Cachoeirinha cemetery in Sao Paolo, Brazil, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease April 1, 2021. AMANDA PEROBELLI/REUTERS

“The crisis is being fueled by a dangerous variant, known as P-1, that was first detected in Brazil. The strain has not only spread to the U.S., but according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it has become the second most common coronavirus variant in the country.“

 

[margarita25]

Gravediggers wearing protective suits carry the coffin of a 32-year-old man who died from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as spotlights illuminate the graves during night burials at Vila Formosa cemetery in Sao Paulo, Brazil, March 30, 2021. AMANDA PEROBELLI/REUTERS

“Burials take place one right after the other. In the short time CBS News was at one sprawling cemetery, Bojorquez and his team watched seven families say goodbye to their loved ones. There in the cemetery, they get their only chance to say goodbye, as funerals aren't allowed due to the pandemic.

Lourival Panhozzi, who heads Brazil's association of funeral directors, said the coronavirus has completely overwhelmed the health care system. He said people who would otherwise have been able to get treatment for ailments like heart disease are finding the hospitals unable to take them in and, unfortunately, they become yet more fatalities blamed, if indirectly, on the virus.”

 

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[margarita25]

Spatiotemporal pattern of COVID-19 spread in Brazil

“Abstract
Brazil has been severely hit by COVID-19, with rapid spatial spread of both cases and deaths. We use daily data on reported cases and deaths to understand, measure, and compare the spatiotemporal pattern of the spread across municipalities. Indicators of clustering, trajectories, speed, and intensity of the movement of COVID-19 to interior areas, combined with indices of policy measures show that while no single narrative explains the diversity in the spread, an overall failure of implementing prompt, coordinated, and equitable responses in a context of stark local inequalities fueled disease spread. This resulted in high and unequal infection and mortality burdens. With a current surge in cases and deaths and several variants of concern in circulation, failure to mitigate the spread could further aggravate the burden.“