RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Saturday, May 23rd, the State reached 6,045 deaths after recording 272 fatalities in 24 hours. According to the Health Secretariat, 80,558 people are infected.
For Divas Covas, coordinator of the Covid-19 Contingency Center, the pandemic will “probably” endure until October unless the rates improve.
“If we had an isolation rate of over 70 percent, this epidemic would be under control. At the current rate, we are failing to achieve 55 percent as the average projections show. This epidemic will continue,” he said.
There is great concern in the São Paulo government. After announcing the plan to relax quarantine in late April, the State saw a drastic change in its situation: the number of cases increased, ICUs filled up and isolation rates decreased.
“We are at a dead end. The measures of social isolation that were more extensive back in late March, early April, today still fall far short of what would be required to stop this pandemic from progressing,” Dimas Covas said.
Governor João Doria has announced a lockdown is ready for enforcement should the situation worsen.
The extended holiday – which began last Wednesday, May 20th, and runs through Monday, May 25th – was designed to try to raise the isolation rates, but so far it has not achieved the expected impact.
“Even with the extended holiday measures, which are important, we have reached a rate of 52 percent in the metropolitan region, 48 percent inland, and we have seen 56 percent, 57 percent isolation here in the state of São Paulo,” said the coordinator of the São Paulo committee.
The ICU occupancy rate, another of the main indicators of the pandemic situation in a given location, reached one of its highest rates in Greater São Paulo, 91.4 percent, as well as in the State as a whole, at 74.7 percent.
While the capital of São Paulo concentrates the majority of cases, the disease is advancing more rapidly inland and along the coast.
A government survey shows that the number of new cases is growing much faster in regions other than metropolitan São Paulo.
In April, the number of Covid-19 cases recorded in the inland and coastal regions grew 3,302 percent (from 129 to 4,389), compared to a 77 percent increase around the capital.
This trend continues in May, with the metropolitan region having the lowest growth rate of cases, 108 percent by May 18th. The region around Presidente Prudente recorded the highest increase, with a rate of 379 percent over the same period; in the coastal area known as Baixada Santista, the increase in cases was 156 percent.
Source: Folhapress