RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Hospitals in Brazil are faltering as a highly contagious version of the coronavirus pierces the country, the president insists on unproven treatments and the only attempt to create a national plan to contain COVID-19 has just fallen short.
In the last week, Brazilian governors have sought to do something that President Jair Bolsonaro stubbornly rejects: together they overwhelm a proposal for states to help reduce the deadliest COVID-19 outbreak to date. The effort was expected to include a restraint, a ban on crowded events and limits on the hours when non-essential services can operate.
The final product, presented on Wednesday, was a one-page document that included general support for restricting activity, but without specific measures. Six governors, obviously still wary of Bolsonaro’s antagonism, refused to sign.
Piaui State Governor Wellington Dias told the Associated Press that unless pressure on hospitals is eased, more and more patients will have to endure the disease without a hospital bed or any hope of treatment. an intensive care unit.
“We have reached the limit throughout Brazil; exceptions are rare, ”said Dias, who leads the governors’ forum. “The chance of dying without assistance is real.”
These deaths have already begun. In Brazil’s richest state, Sao Paulo, at least 30 patients died this month while waiting for ICU beds, according to a number published Wednesday by the G1 news site. In the south of Santa Catarina, 419 people are waiting to be transferred to ICU beds. In the vicinity of Rio Grande do Sul, the ICU capacity is 106%.
Alexandre Zavascki, a doctor in the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, described the constant arrival of patients in the hospital struggling to breathe.
“I have many colleagues who sometimes stop crying. It is not a medicine that we usually carry out. This is a drug adapted for a war scenario, “said Zavascki, who oversees the treatment of infectious diseases at a private hospital. “We see a good part of the population that refuses to see what is happening, resisting the facts. Those people may be the next step inside the hospital and will want beds. But there will be no one. ”
He added that the country needs “stricter measures” from local authorities.
Over the president’s objections, the Supreme Court last year upheld the jurisdiction of cities and states to impose restrictions on activity. Even so, Bolsonaro has consistently condemned their moves, saying the economy must continue to shake and that isolation will cause depression. The measures were relaxed until the end of 2020, as COVID-19 cases and deaths decreased, municipal election campaigns began and Brazilians in the country became tired of quarantine.
The latest increase is determined by the P1 variant, which the Brazilian health minister said last month is three times more transmissible than the original strain. It first became dominant in the Amazonian city of Manaus and in January forced the airlift of hundreds of patients to other states.
Brazil’s failure to stop the spread of the virus at the time is increasingly seen as a concern not only for Latin American neighbors but also as a warning to the world, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the World Health Organization. a press briefing on March 5. .
“Across the country, the aggressive use of public health measures, social measures, will be very, very crucial,” he said. “Without doing things that have an impact on transmission or suppress the virus, I don’t think we will be able to have a declining trend in Brazil.”
Last week’s death toll of more than 10,000 was the highest in Brazil since the pandemic began, and the week’s number is set to rise even after the country recorded nearly 2,300 deaths on Wednesday – blowing the previous day’s total, which was also a record.
“Governments, like a lot of people, are fed up with all this inaction,” said Margareth Dalcolmo, a prominent pulmonologist at the state-run Fiocruz Institute. She added that their proposed pact is vague and will remain symbolic, unless it becomes far-reaching and confronts the federal government.
Brazil’s National Council of State Secretaries of State last week called for the establishment of a national blocking and blocking option in regions approaching the hospital’s maximum capacity. Bolsonaro slowed down again.
“I will not decree it,” Bolsonaro said Monday at an event. “And you can be sure of one thing: my army won’t go on the streets to force people to stay home.”
Restrictions can already be found right in front of the presidential palace after federal district governor Ibaneis Rocha implemented a blockade and a partial blockade.. Rocha warned on Tuesday that it could be harder to counter, saving only pharmacies and hospitals if people do not follow the rules. Currently, 213 people in the district are on the waiting list for an ICU bed.
Bolsonaro told reporters on Monday that the coverage was “an insult, unacceptable” and said that even the WHO considered the blockades to be inappropriate because it disproportionately affected the poor. While the WHO acknowledges “profound negative effects”, it says that some countries have had no choice but to impose heavy measures to slow down the transmission and that governments must make the most of the extra time given to testing and tracking cases over time. who take care of them. patients.
Such a nuance was lost on Bolsonaro. His government continues its search for solutions with silver bullets that have so far only served to raise false hopes. Any idea seems to justify consideration, with the exception of those from public health experts.
Bolsonaro’s government has spent millions of people producing and distributing malaria pills, which have shown no benefit in rigorous studies. However, Bolsonaro approved the drugs. He also supported treatment with two drugs to control parasites, none of which were shown to be effective. He reaffirmed their ability to prevent hospitalizations during a Wednesday event at the presidential palace.
Bolsonaro sent a committee to Israel this week to evaluate an unproven nasal spray, which he called a “miracle product.” Dalcolmo of Fiocruz, whose younger sister is currently in intensive care, called the trip “truly pathetic.”
Camila Romano, a researcher at the Institute of Tropical Medicine at the University of Sao Paulo, hopes a test developed by her lab to identify worrying variants, including P1, will help monitors and controls their spread. She also wants to see stricter government measures and the citizens who are her part.
“Every day is a new surprise, a new variant, a city whose health system is collapsing,” said Romano. “It simply came to our notice then. If this will be the worst phase of all, unfortunately, we do not know what will happen next “.
___ Álvares reported from Brasilia. Associated Press video journalist Tatiana Pollastri contributed from Sao Paulo.