The alarming COVID-19 figures in Brazil has prompted the state of Sao Paulo to announce new ‘code red’ COVID-19 restrictions, as Wednesday saw the country register a new single-day record number of coronavirus-related deaths for the second straight day.
According to the country’s health ministry on Wednesday, 1,910 additional deaths and 71,704 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the past 24 hours in the South-American country.
It was the second consecutive day that Brazil registered a record high number of deaths.
‘For the first time since the pandemic began, we are seeing a deterioration across the entire country,‘ public health institute Fiocruz said before the latest figures were published.
‘The situation is alarming.’
According to Johns Hopkins University, Brazil has recorded more than 257,000 coronavirus-related deaths – the second-highest tally in the world after the United States – as well as more than 10.6 million COVID-19 cases.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has faced widespread criticism and protests against his handling of the pandemic, as the far-right leader has downplayed the threat of the virus and eschewed public health measures.
The government has also struggled to secure, distribute and administer COVID-19 vaccines.
Bars and restaurants will operate only via delivery and malls and non-essential business will be shut, the governor told reporters during a news conference, but schools, churches, grocery stores, and health services would remain open.
Doria said Sao Paulo state, which is home to 46.3 million people, has been receiving a new intensive care patient every two minutes and is ‘on the brink of a health system collapse’.
‘This is your fault. It’s because of your denialism,’ he said, addressing Bolsonaro.
‘More than 1,000 people are dying every day in Brazil. It’s like five plane crashes a day … Many of the Brazilians who have been buried died because you didn’t do what you were supposed to: lead.’
Bolsonaro attacked the lockdowns on Wednesday.
‘You cannot panic, like resorting once again to this stay-at-home policy. People are going to die of hunger and depression,’ he told a group of supporters.
Julio Ponce, an epidemiologist in Sao Paulo, told Al Jazeera that Bolsonaro “has been undermining all the efforts to control the pandemic”.
‘We need to have lockdown measures, we need to wear masks, and we need to keep social distancing until we are able to vaccinate enough people so that they are protected against the virus,’ he said.
Concerns have mounted about the surging pandemic in Brazil, where a more easily transmissible variant of the novel coronavirus was first discovered in Amazonas state late last year.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
