The state of Sao Paulo recorded a total of 1,021 deaths in 24 hours, according to the health secretary on Tuesday. The figure is the highest since the beginning of the pandemic.
The deadliest day for the state in terms of the pandemic was seven days ago, on March 16, when 679 people died in 24 hours. A total of 68,623 people in São Paulo lost their lives because of Covid-19.
Also, the health system is close to collapse, with 91.9% of the beds of intensive care units in the occupied state. On Monday, 29,039 patients with Covid-19 were admitted to Sao Paulo, 12,168 of them in intensive care beds. On March 1, the number of hospitalized patients was 15,977, almost half of the current number.
On Monday, the Council of Municipal Health Secretaries in Sao Paulo warned that 54 cities have enough oxygen for the rest of the week alone.
On the same day, at a press conference, Governor João Doria announced a partnership with a private beverage company to build an oxygen plant in Ribeirao Preto, one of the largest cities in the state of Sao Paulo.
In an interview with CNN on Monday, Julia Chatterley, the governor of Sao Paulo’s Brazilian state Joao Doria, called Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro a “psychopathic leader” and criticized the president’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We are in one of those tragic moments in history when millions of people pay a high price because they have an unprepared and psychopathic leader to lead a nation,” he told CNN’s First Move.
Doria said much of the deaths from the virus in Brazil could have been avoided if Bolsonaro had “acted with the responsibility of his job.” He added that Bolsonaro had made “incredible mistakes, the biggest being having a political dispute with the rulers trying to protect the population.”
More information: Bolsonaro has repeatedly opposed the blockade and restrictive measures and criticized governors and mayors for their implementation. He was also seen greeting the crowd of supporters during the pandemic without wearing a mask, and advocated for drugs such as hydroxychloroquine to treat the virus – a drug that has no proven effectiveness in fighting Covid-19.
Brazil now has more than 12 million cases of coronavirus in the country, according to the Ministry of Health.
Julia Chatterley and Hira Humayun of CNN contributed to the reporting of this post.