Brazil’s second most populous city, Rio de Janeiro, recorded 36,437 deaths in March – 16% more than the 32,060 new births that month, according to the National Civil Registry. He was not alone; at least 10 other Brazilian cities with populations of more than half a million people also recorded more deaths than births last month.
Cities across the country have been hit hard by a recent rise in Covid-19 cases and deaths, fueled in part by new variants considered highly contagious, as well as the ignorance of some Brazilians for social precautions. The grim ratio of deaths and births is still a goal for a national crisis that federal and local officials have failed to contain more than a year after the pandemic.
According to Johns Hopkins University statistics, 77,515 people across Brazil have died from Covid-19 in the last month and more than 2 million new cases have been diagnosed. All but three of Brazil’s 27 states and federal districts currently have 80% or more occupancy rates in intensive care units, according to state health secretaries.
The launch of the vaccine in Brazil has been slow, affected from the beginning by internal political quarrels and difficulties in procuring vaccine doses. Only 6.3 million people – about 3% of the population – have been completely vaccinated, according to the Brazilian Ministry of Health. The same ministry statement said that 21.1 million people received at least one dose of vaccine – but that at least 1.5 million of them delayed the program for the second shot.
Both the Coronavac vaccines and the AstraZeneca, on which the country depends, require two doses. The Ministry of Health did not offer any reason why some Brazilians failed to receive the second dose. However, the local media has raised confusion or misconceptions among the public about the importance of the second dose and the difficulties Brazilians face with low incomes in accessing vaccination centers.
As long as the coronavirus circulates uncontrollably, new mutations could occur, experts say. Existing coronavirus variants in the country are already sounding the alarm; variant P.1 first identified in Brazil is leading to an increase in cases in neighboring countries and this week led France to suspend flights to and from the country.
Bombastic President Jair Bolsonaro has embraced the vaccines, recently approaching Russia for a potential deal on the Sputnik V vaccine. But critics want to apply the same urgency to other fronts in the fight against coronavirus. The president has repeatedly downplayed the danger of Covid-19 – which he once called a “small flu” – and insists that the country’s economic health must take precedence over blocking measures.
In public statements last week, Bolsonaro promised that he would never accept a national blocking strategy to contain the coronavirus – despite requests from the United Nations and the respected Brazilian medical research center Fiocruz. He seemed unmoved by the death toll and rising cases, which he picked up as “spilled milk” during an April 7 event in the southern Brazilian city of Foz do Iguacu.
“We will not cry because of the spilled milk. We are still facing a pandemic, which is partly used politically not to defeat the virus, but to try to overthrow the president. We are all responsible for what is happening in Brazil,” A said Bolsonaro. “Which country in the world has not seen deaths? Unfortunately, people are dying everywhere. “
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