Due to the impact of COVID-19, deaths already exceed births in Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre and 10 other cities in Brazil

April is projected to be the darkest month in Brazil in the pandemic, to the point that in several cities of the South American giant, deaths during the month exceed births.. As of Wednesday alone, the country reported 3,459 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and topped 360,000 deaths.

In places like Rio de Janeiro, São Bernardo do Campo, Natal and Porto Alegre, more people have already died than they are born. The data, which comes from the official Brazilian registry office, shows that this situation occurs in 12 of the 50 cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants.

In the current week, the country has recorded 8,747 deaths linked to the novel coronavirus, which extends without restriction throughout the national territory despite the mobility restrictions in force in a large part of the Brazilian states.

El Ministerio de Salud también reportó 73,513 contagios en el último día, con lo cual el balance total de positivos es ahora de 13,673,507, aunque especialistas sanitarios estiman que, debido a la subnotificación, el número podría ser hasta “dos o tres veces” upper.

In the country’s second largest city, Rio Janeiro, 32,060 births and 36,437 deaths were recorded in March. However, the most alarming figure is that of Porto Alegre, which last month recorded 3,221 deaths and only 1,509 births.

The number of deaths is expected to continue rising in the coming week to an average of nearly 3,500 per day before dropping, according to the University of Washington Institute for Health Measurement and Evaluation. If the trend continues, it would generate an unprecedented scenario for the South American giant: that deaths exceed births nationwide in one month.

Public health experts accuse President Jair Bolsonaro of refusing to enact strict measures to stop infections and for standing up for the governors and mayors who have done so.

This was compounded by the Health Ministry’s offer for a single vaccine, AstraZeneca, and the purchase of a single rider, China’s CoronaVac, after supply issues emerged with the first. Authorities have ignored other producers and wasted opportunities until it is too late to obtain large quantities of vaccine by the first half of 2021.

With extensive experience in massive and successful vaccination programs, Brazil should have known bettersaid Claudio Maierovich, former head of the national health regulator. “The big problem is that Brazil did not look for alternatives when they had the chance,” he added.

Bolsonaro has publicly questioned the reliability of other injections and scoffed at contract terms. He insisted he would not force anyone to be vaccinated and recently said he could get it himself.

The government has also delayed the signing of the COVAX initiative of the World Health Organization, which provides vaccines to the poorest countries.. In the end, it bought the bare minimum, enough for 10% of its population of 210 million.

In February, Brazil began signing contracts with other pharmaceutical companies, but none of its injections were administered. Of the 10% of people who have received a dose to date, the vast majority have received the injection of Butantan and the remainder received the injection of AstraZeneca, which the government health institute Fiocruz conditions.

The Bolsonaro administration announced in mid-March the acquisition of 100 million doses of the inoculant developed by Pfizer – although only 3.5 million will arrive between April and March – and 38 million from Johnson & Johnson. However, doses from the latter lab will start arriving in the third trimester.

Intensive care units for COVID-19 patients in most states nationwide exceed 90% of capacity. Seven in 10 hospitals are at risk of running out of supplemental oxygen and anesthetic in the next few days, the newspaper reported. Newspaper April 8.

Bolsonaro rejected the 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 enacting restrictions. In contrast, Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court on Wednesday authorized a further Senate investigation into the president’s conduct.

With AP information

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