Coronavirus in Brazil: São Paulo has returned to the “red phase” of restrictions due to another epidemic

The Brazilian state of São Paulo on Wednesday decreed the return for two weeks before the “ red phase ” of restrictions to fight the coronavirus pandemic, at its deadliest stage in Brazil.

“We will face the two worst weeks since March of last year”, when the disease made the first of the already more than 257,000 deaths that the country has accumulated, declared the governor of São Paulo, Joao Doria.

The measure will take effect on Saturday at 00:00 (03:00 GMT on Sunday). In the “red phase”, only essential activities are allowed, mainly in the areas of health, food and public transport. Schools and churches were also seen as essential.

“Today we are in São Paulo and Brazil on the verge of health collapse“, Doria warned, the day after the country, out of 212 million inhabitants, recorded a record of 1,641 deaths in 24 hours. The weekly average has exceeded 1,000 daily deaths since January, for the first time since August, and for three days it has exceeded 1,200.

São Paulo, the richest and most populous state in the country, with 46 million inhabitants, is also the one with the highest number of deaths (60,014) and cases (2 million since the start of the pandemic. , out of the 10.6 million infections recorded across the country).

The State, which had already declared a red phase throughout its territory around the Christmas holidays, it is less affected than others in relative terms (131 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, against 192 in Rio de Janeiro or 266 in Amazonia). But its hospital network has been experiencing the period of greatest pressure for a year.

The fight against covid-19 also faces the slowness of the national vaccination campaign, despite Brazil’s experience in this area. So far, only 7.1 million people (3.3% of the population) have been vaccinated in just over a month.

Doria attributed the scale of the tragedy to President Jair Bolsonaro, who played down the pandemic, calling it “the flu.” He also encouraged crowds, questioned the use of masks and the effectiveness of vaccines, in addition to criticizing governors who impose restrictive measures because of their economic impacts.

“It saddens me to see lives lost every day (…) More than a thousand people a day die in Brazil, it is as if five planes fell every day (…) It is not normal , it is not trivial, it is not a flu. It’s a tragedy “Doria assured.

El gobernador, un hábil político que se vislumbra como candidato para disputar la presidencia con Bolsonaro in 2022, dijo no temer que las restricciones, repudiadas por el sector comercial, amenacen su popularidad, y apuntó con vehemencia contra el mandatario, de quien fue aliado en the past. “It’s your fault, for a penny (…). Many Brazilians who are buried are buried because you did not have the capacity to do what you had to do: lead, ”he stressed.

With information from AFP

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