BRAZIL / PORTO ALEGRE (Reuters) – Hospitals in Brazil’s major cities are reaching capacity, health officials warned as the country saw the highest number of deaths in the world COVID-19 in the past week, triggering stricter restrictions on Thursday in its most populous state.
Intensive care units for treating patients with COVID-19 have reached critical occupancy levels of over 90% in 15 of 27 state capitals, according to the Fiocruz biomedical center.
In Porto Alegre, southern Brazil, the main referral hospital for COVID-19 has stopped admitting new cases because all its intensive care beds have been taken. A Reuters photographer saw patients with respirators crowding the emergency rooms.
“It simply came to our notice then. We have reached capacity and people need to be aware of how bad the situation is, ”said Claudio Oliveira, director of Conceiçao Hospital. It was the first time the hospital removed patients from the 2009 H1N1 epidemic.
Oliveira told reporters that the hospital closed its doors to prevent the collapse of the care of COVID patients there.
The number of deaths from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours exceeded 2,000 for the second time, the Ministry of Health said on Thursday, with 2,233 deaths and new infections increasing by 75,412.
With more than 272,000 deaths, the number of pandemics in Brazil in the last year is in the United States alone. But in the last week, Brazil has averaged more than 1,600 deaths a day, ahead of about 1,400 in the United States, where the outbreak has dropped.
While President Jair Bolsonaro opposes the blockade and urges Brazilians to leave their homes, governors and mayors have struggled to enforce the restrictions, often pleading in vain with a population daring by the rising tide of the epidemic.
The far-right president attacked governors on Thursday for blockades, including the Sao Paulo state’s move to ban football matches. He said they are increasing poverty with a worse drug than the virus.
“How long can we resist this irresponsibility of blocking? You close everything and destroy millions of jobs. The blockade is not a remedy, “Bolsonaro said in a video to a business group with Economy Minister Paulo Guedes at his side.
Brazil’s two most populous cities, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, moved on Thursday to tighten measures as their hospitals battled a second wave of the virus, led by a more contagious variant that appeared in the Amazon region.
As Europe and the United States step up vaccinations and reduce their cases, Brazil’s federal government is starting at a slow pace, with only 2% of Brazil’s 210 million people being completely inoculated so far.
In the nation’s capital, Brasilia, which is under a night hairstyle, the intensive care units of public hospitals are 97% full and the private ones are at 99%, which forced the city to re-establish field hospitals as it had. -o during a peak in last year’s cases.
On Thursday, Sao Paulo Governor João Doria announced a “new stage” of restrictions to impose social distance, arguing that it is now the only weapon against the spread of the virus.
These include a coverage time from 20:00 to 5:00, the suspension of religious services and sporting events, including football matches, and people who are not allowed to use beaches and parks.
“It is a tough, unpopular decision. No governor wants to stop the economic activities in their state “, Doria said at a press conference.
The state of Sao Paulo, which is home to about 44 million people, currently only allows essential stores, such as supermarkets and pharmacies, to receive shoppers.
Sao Paulo’s health secretary said hospitals in more than half of the state’s municipalities are full and half of the patients are under 50.
Last year, the worst cases were concentrated among elderly Brazilians.
Additional reporting by Eduardo Simoes in Sao Paulo and Rodrigo Viga Gaier in Rio de Janeiro; Written by Jamie McGeever and Anthony Boadle; Editing by Brad Haynes, Bill Berkrot, Jonathan Oatis and Daniel Wallis