Daily Management Review

Deadly Second Pandemic Wave Causing Havoc In Brazil As Hospitals Get Overwhelmed


03/13/2021




Deadly Second Pandemic Wave Causing Havoc In Brazil As Hospitals Get Overwhelmed
Brazil has been severely hit by a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic as its hospitals and ICUs reaching full capacity and are on the verge of a collapse even as record number of daily deaths form the pandemic are being reported.
 
Despite the country-wide spreading o the new coronavirus variant in Brazil, it is alleged that many of the residents are defying mask mandates and mobility restrictions – presumably following up on the example of President Jair Bolsonaro who was recently heard saying that people need to "stop being sissies" and "whining" about the coronavirus.
 
According to experts, that along with the careless attitudes of the people and the new virus strain has been deadly.
 
"We are going through the worst-case scenario since the beginning of the pandemic. You just have to look at the trends in the average number of deaths," Gonzalo Vecina Neto, a Sao Paulo University professor of Public Health, recently said in a television interview. "This could have been avoided and the most important factor is gatherings."
 
With respect to the number of deaths in a 24-hour period, its own record has been broken by Brazil three times this month alone. On Wednesday, a total of 2,286 people were reported to have died from the disease which is a new record for the country, according to data from Brazil's Health Ministry. According to reports, a total of 270,000 people have so far died because of the pandemic in the country which has made Brazil the country with the second highest number of Covid-19 deaths after the United States.
 
ICU occupancy has surpassed 80% in 22 of Brazil's 26 states. With occupancy rates reaching 103% in the intensive care units in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, patients are forced to wait in queues to get admitted. And with 99% occupancy, the hospital intensive care system is near collapse in the neighboring state of Santa Catarina with rising number o of cases throughout the region.
 
The trend of large parties and gatherings that had started around New Year's Eve and have continued through the pre-Lent carnival holiday and even now have been blamed to be the cause behind the recent surge in Covid-19 cases in the country by health care workers. They claimed that many of the parties and gathering were organized defying the restrictions imposed by local city and state authorities.
 
"The health system in Brazil is on the verge of collapse," Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria told CNN in an interview recently. "There is no national coordination to combat the pandemic in Brazil. It would be important for the President and the governors to send the same message to the population, but this unfortunately, doesn't happen in Brazil.”
 
Lockdowns and social distancing measures have now become a political issue in Brazil. While some states have issued restrictions and partial closures of nonessential businesses, the country’s president Bolsonaro has claimed that such restrictions only add on to the woes of the Brazilian economy and has led to an increase in depression and consequent suicides.
 
(Source:www.cnn.com)