Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay raise alarms over Covid advance

While Argentina is relatively far from its peak of contagion of Covid-19 – occurred in October last year – most neighboring countries sounded the alarm by re-recording the records of infected in an impending second wave.

Quarantines, movement restrictions and massive vaccination campaigns frame reality Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay, countries where health collapses are also to be feared.

Pandemic and crisis

The pandemic does not give a truce to the South American giant, one of the most affected countries in the world.

Day after day, he broke his own record of infections.

With a total of 12 million patients since the virus entered the country yesterday, only nearly 50,000 and 3,251 deaths have been recorded. During this time, the fatal victims are approximately 300,000.

After the prestigious Oswaldo Cruz Foundation claimed the country was going through “the worst health collapse in history,” it was learned that 24 of the 26 states had critical occupancy rates for intensive care beds.

In 19 of the 27 Brazilian capitals, including Sao Paulo, the occupancy rate exceeds 90%. In Porto Alegre it has gone 100%.

The state of Sao Paulo, which has 46 million inhabitants, yesterday exceeded the threshold of 1,000 deaths in one day.

reviews

Criticism from President Jair Bolsonaro, a fervent anti-quarantine activist, is constant.

“A conductor is absent from the orchestra called ‘pandemic control’. If the movement of people is not controlled, if there is no mass testing and investigation of symptoms, the pandemic will never be brought under control. Not even with vaccines, ”warned a researcher.

Supreme Court Judge Marco Aurélio Mello on Tuesday rejected the president’s request to overturn decrees approved by the governments of the Federal District, Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul to impose isolation measures.

Bolsonaro demanded from judges that shutting down non-essential activities was the responsibility of Congress, not governors.

“Should I change my speech, give in, as the vast majority do?” If they convince me otherwise, I will, but they haven’t convinced me yet. We have to fight the virus, not me, ”the president said.

Closed river

The city of Rio de Janeiro and its neighbor Niterói have announced the closure of hotels and stores for ten days, from Friday to April 4.

The mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, assured that these restrictions had been adopted “out of absolute necessity and by listening a lot to science”, and asked for the collaboration of neighbors to save lives.

During the ten days, only services deemed essential, such as pharmacies, supermarkets, gas stations and banks, will be able to open.

Successful vaccination, but …

Chile is experiencing a huge paradox. Despite the success of its vaccination campaign, the government of Sebastián Piñera has ordered a strict quarantine from tomorrow for 13 million people, 70% of its inhabitants.

The measure was taken because last week new cases increased by 17% and in the last two weeks by 36%, according to Chilean Minister of Health, Enrique Paris. In the past 24 hours alone, 6,155 new cases of Covid-19 have been detected, a number that exceeds last winter’s worst record.

“Quarantine is painful, difficult, but given the advancement of viral circulation, we must take these steps with people’s health in mind,” Paris said.

Due to the new restrictions, a total of 42 municipalities, 21 of which belong to the Santiago metropolitan region, will be re-confined.

In addition, from this Saturday, the individual travel permit will be canceled on weekends and holidays.

Despite the difficult outlook, which includes more than 90% occupancy of hospital beds in some areas, until the second week of March, Chile was ranked fifth in the world for the number of doses administered per 100 inhabitants, exceeded. only by Israel, the United States. United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and United States, according to a survey by the University of Oxford.

A total of 5,642,004 people have been vaccinated nationwide, while more than 2.9 million people have received both doses of the vaccine.

“It’s difficult”

Uruguay’s President Luis Lacalle Pou met with several of his ministers yesterday to discuss action to tackle coronavirus infections, a day after the worst numbers of infections and deaths were reported since outbreak of the pandemic.

“It’s really difficult,” said an aide to the president, who yesterday held meetings with ministers of health, education and external relations, Daniel Salinas, Pablo da Silveira and Francisco Bustillo.

On Monday, the worst forecasts were confirmed: the P1 strain from Brazil is already circulating in seven Uruguayan departments, including the capital. In addition, the National Emergency System (Sinae) reported that in less than 24 hours, cases doubled, breaking the “symbolic barrier” of 2,500 people infected in a single day.

Specifically, 2,682 new cases and 19 deaths have been detected, and the two figures are a record since the first case was detected in Uruguay.

It also peaked in terms of the number of people with the disease, with 14,418, and in turn the highest number of people admitted to intensive care was also reached: 188.

This last data is one of the most worrying, since the scientific community has warned against a possible collapse of the system.

The departments of Montevideo, San José, Florida, Durazno, Treinta y Tres, Cerro Largo, Río Negro, Paysandú, Salto, Artigas, Rivera and Tacuarembó are in the red level due to the number of cases.

In some of them, with more than 80% occupancy of beds in hospitals, there is fear of a health collapse.

The variant of the virus that originated in Manaus, Brazil, is keeping authorities on alert because of its aggressiveness and because it occurs in older and younger patients.

Total quarantine

With more than 1,990 cases recorded yesterday, Paraguay is still unable to stop the spread of the virus, which has already infected 196,112 people (3,769 deaths).

Health Minister Julio Borba anticipated on Tuesday that it is likely that from next weekend a total quarantine will be applied in different regions of the country to stop the contagion of the coronavirus.

The decision is not yet confirmed, but Borba admitted that the total quarantine had already been discussed over Easter with President Mario Abdo and several unions of production, parties, restaurants, among others, reported the newspaper Ultima Hora.

“We have met various unions and have been well received. There was no general consensus that many people are affected, but there was an understanding of what to do and what we should do, ”the official said.

“Last week we had 12% more positive results and that would imply that 15% require medical attention, which will affect the system much more despite the growth of therapies and human resources. We have a long waiting list and it is very worrying, ”he added.

The Paraguayan Circle of Doctors also suggested the need to go into total quarantine at Easter, given the critical situation regarding infrastructure, drugs and vaccines.

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