Brazil: São Paulo state surpasses 100,000 deaths from COVID-19

São Paulo, the Brazilian state most affected by the coronavirus pandemic, crossed the barrier of 100,000 deaths this Saturday associated with covid-19, a figure higher than that of entire countries, such as Colombia, Spain or Germany.

According to data from the Ministry of Health, São Paulo, the most populous of Brazil’s 27 states, with an estimated 46 million people, has killed 660 in the last day, with which the total balance rose to 100,649 deaths in the region.

This number is equal to nearly a quarter of deaths due to covid-19 recorded throughout Brazil, which are nearly 420,000 of the more than 15 million positive.

In addition, in accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO), is above the deaths of countries like Germany (84,648), Spain (78,726) or Colombia (76,414), and is close to that of others like France (105,339) and Russia (112,992).

The first case of coronavirus in Brazil, which was also the first in Latin America, was recorded in Sao Paulo on February 26, 2020 and since then has already accumulated 2,997,282 infected, having reported 13,100 infections in the last 24 hours.

Despite the Slight slowdown in the pandemic in recent weeks, the São Paulo hospital network is still under strong pressure, with 78.5% of intensive care beds occupied, far from the 90% of last March, where there were also problems of supply of drugs for intubated patients.

With the incidence of the virus still at a high level, the São Paulo’s government began to ease the rigid restrictions on mobility it had enacted in previous weeks on April 18, once again allowing businesses and churches to reopen.

In this context, epidemiologists have already warned of the arrival of a third wave of infections, without having yet overcome this second, aggravated by the circulation of variants that are a priori more infectious, including two of Brazilian origin, P.1 from Manaus and P.2 from Rio de Janeiro.

Bolsonaro denounces a “embarrassment”

Meanwhile, the President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, described this Saturday as “embarrassing” the commission installed in the Senate which is investigating possible omissions of his government in the management of the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s an embarrassment, they only talk about chloroquine. But whoever is contrary offers no alternative. Has anyone ever taken here? The leader asked a group of worshipers at the door of his official residence in Brasilia.

Bolsonaro, leader of a Brazilian far-right denier who denies the seriousness of the new coronavirusHe announced that in the next few days he would record a video with some of his ministers in favor of this antimalarial drug, the effectiveness of which against covid-19 is not scientifically proven.

“We are going to make a video with all these ministers who took hydroxychloroquine (derivative of chloroquine) to say: I took it. This is the alternative of the moment. “Ah, but there is no scientific proof,” but nothing says otherwise, “he justified himself.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has spoken out on several occasions on ineffectiveness of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for the preventive treatment of covid-19 and even alerted to possible side effects when used for this disease.

However, Bolsonaro, who censors the use of masks and social isolation To fight the pandemic, he has assiduously promoted the administration of this drug, which his government has distributed massively to Brazilian states.

In this context, the president was interested in the parliamentary committee clarifying some death cases recorded in Manaus, capital of the state of Amazonas, linked to the application of a high dose of chloroquine.

“Any drug in excess can lead to death,” he warned.

With information from EFE

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