Brazil’s shocking change in daily COVID-19 death curve to worst pandemic moment

The only way to gauge the severity of the second wave of the pandemic in Brazil is to see the curve of the evolution of daily deaths from COVID-19 from March 2020 to today. In June of last year, when hospitals in many states began to collapse, the country had an average of 1,000 deaths a day. It was almost three months at this level of mortality, which seemed insurmountable.

At the end of August began a decline that bottomed out on November 5, with 305 deaths in 24 hours (seven-day moving average). But the reality is, the worst was yet to come. Then the second wave began, leaving the first reduced to something almost insignificant.

In the third week of January of this year Brazil is back on track for 1,000 daily COVID-19 deaths. But instead of staying at that level, like in 2020, the curve has become even steeper. On March 17, the average of 2,000 deaths was exceeded for the first time, and on April 1, the peak of a moving average of 3,117 deaths per day was reached.

In the following days there was a drop which seemed to break the trend. But hope was short-lived. After 4,000 gross deaths were surpassed in a single day on Tuesday and Thursday, the moving average, which fell to 2698 on Monday, climbed back to 2821 on Thursday.

Brazil recorded 4,195 deaths on Tuesday, 3,829 on Wednesday and 4,249 on Thursday, or 12,273 in just three days, almost the same number that, for example, Egypt (12,290) or Bolivia (12,366) accumulate throughout the pandemic, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO). The Latin American giant is today the place on the planet where the most people die from coronavirus and has accumulated 345,025 deaths in 13 months.

In addition, confirmed cases jumped to 13,279,857, after 86,652 new cases infected with SARS-CoV-2 were reported on Thursday., according to the bulletin of the Ministry of Health.

Bolsonaro, against “the climate of terror”

President Jair Bolsonaro, denying the seriousness of the virus, criticized this Thursday in his weekly program via social networks the “climate of terror” installed in society because of the serious health crisis, something which, he said, “is not helping to save lives”.

Brazil is the second country with the most deaths and the most confirmed cases of the disease, after the United States, and is currently facing the worst phase of the pandemic, with public hospitals overwhelmed by revenue growth by COVID-19.

Almost a third of the deaths reported Thursday occurred in San Pablo, the most developed and populous state in the country, where local authorities reported 1,299 deaths on the last day, the region’s second worst score.

The director of the Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), Antonio Barra Torres, admitted that the pandemic “is far from over”.

“There is no conviction among us that the worst phase is over”, asserted with resignation during an appearance before a Senate committee.

This new record comes on a day when the plenary session of the Supreme Federal Court once again upset Bolsonaro and supported the closure of churches and temples, which had been authorized by one of the 11 High Court magistrates, with the support of the president.

A commission of inquiry that worries the government

Another Supreme Court judge, Luís Roberto Barroso, Thursday, ordered the Senate to install a commission of inquiry to determine if there were “omissions” by the executive in handling the pandemic.

Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco said he would comply with the ruling, although in his opinion it is “false” because it is not the moment for that. The commission will start working next week.

Barroso’s decision is another setback for the Bolsonaro administration, because this could increase the wear and tear that the head of state has suffered in recent months, whose popularity has fallen, to a year and a half before the next presidential elections, which he intends to organize.

The second wave of the pandemic has been accelerating for weeks, spurred on circulation of variants of the virus considered to be more infectious, like Manaus, known as P.1 and already predominant in various parts of the country, and Great Britain. Scientists, who had previously warned that Brazil could become a “global laboratory” for new strains of the coronavirus due to its high incidence, are investigating two other new lines that have emerged in the country with a large number of mutations, some linked to a greater power of infection.

With intensive care units filled to 90 a good part of the national territory, Brazil’s public health system is also facing a shortage of essential drugs for the most severe patients with COVID-19, such as sedatives, pain relievers and, in some cases, oxygen.

At the same time, the vaccination campaign, which began on January 17, is gradually progressing. To date, 10% of the 212 million Brazilians have received the first dose.

With information from EFE

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